Dreamt
by alwaysanangelgurl
Summary: Chapter 17 up! Rewrites from when Buffy returns from the Dead
1. Default Chapter

Disclaimer: I am not Joss, if I were Angel and Buffy would be together and the sucky season would never had happened.  
  
Author's Rant: I just watched part of the season finale for 'Angel' and I am not a happy camper! First off: Angel would never have left and Secondly: he would never have "fallen" for Cordy and Thirdly: He would do anything to help Buffy! And Buffy's episodes, bad people!  
  
Prologue  
  
He dreamed of her that night, the same dream that he always dreamed and he was never able to save her. He watched her say her goodbyes to Dawn, watching as Dawn pleaded with Buffy to let her go and to let her die. But not his Buffy, his slayer would do anything to save a life, but she also looked run down and beaten, like her reason for living had been taken from her. He watched Buffy explain about the First Slayer and how Death was her gift and then he watched her turn and jump off the tower and into the portal. He could see the relief cross her face, as she accepted Death and her life would end, never having to face this cold and brutal world.  
  
He watched as she went to hell, because Glory's portal had screwed up and sent her there. He watched the demons delight that a slayer had entered hell. He could see a line form, each demon wanting a turn at his Buffy and each demon getting his turn. He watched as some demons raped her, while others enjoyed inflicting mental pain on her instead. He listened to them taunt her about her love for him and how he had moved on to Cordelia, of all people! He saw his love cry out in pain as images of Cordy and him kissing were flashed before her face. He could see the look of betrayal cross her face and he could almost feel her heartbreak and he was unable to stop any of it.  
  
The dream shifted and Angel saw Xander, Anya, Willow, and Tara performing some ritual over her grave, he watched as it was interrupted by a pack of demons, which led the Scooby gang away from the grave. He saw a hand coming out of the ground, bloodied from having to dig itself out of the grave. He watched as his slayer pulled herself out of her grave and looked around confused and afraid to hope that she was no longer in hell. He watched her travel through the streets of Sunnydale and back to her house, where her sister fixed her up and everyone rushed to make her feel welcomed. He watched her climb the stairs up to her room and cry, each sob like a dagger in his heart and he wanted to hold her. Suddenly she stopped and looked directly at him,  
  
"Angel, I need you, come back to me." She told him and Angel awoke.  
  
"Buffy!" he cried, just before he was pulled into the chamber with the Oracles.  
  
"Greetings lower being."  
  
"What do you want?" he asked tiredly, not really caring, "I think you have taken enough from me." He told, thinking of his slayer, already gone.  
  
"We wish to give you something."  
  
"If it is Cordy I will pass thanks."  
  
"We are have grounded your soul, you cannot lose it."  
  
"That's great. Can I go now?" he asked, still not caring, very much wanting to go back to grieving.  
  
"You have not heeded your dreams." They told him, "She is back and she needs your help." Angel looked at them, shocked.  
  
"When?" he asked.  
  
"Tonight. Now go and help your slayer." 


	2. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I am not Joss, if I were Angel and Buffy would be together and the sucky season would never had happened.  
  
Chapter 1  
  
Buffy stared off into space, looking into the growing darkness out her window. She knew this dream well enough and was waiting for something to wake her and start her torture all over again. She mostly only slept when she passed out either from exhaustion or from the pain of it all. She could feel him approaching and that was new, because no matter how many times he save her in her dreams, she could never feel him approaching. Shrugging it off, she decided to leave for a little while, she crept to the door and listened to the ongoing argument.  
  
"We need to tell him," she heard Willow say, "He has a right to know that she is alive."  
  
"He hasn't been in our lives for a while now, Willow, and she is doing fine on her own." Xander told her.  
  
"Yea," Anya said, "She's doing so well, that she still thinks that she is in hell and won't let any of us near her to wash her and she hasn't spoken to any of us." Buffy shut the door and the voices out and crept to her window where she slipped off into the darkness. She made her way to one of the graveyards and waited for Angel to come.  
  
"I'm sorry I couldn't be here sooner." He whispered as he slipped his arms around her and pulled her into his embrace. "I had a dream about you the other."  
  
"I know, I could see you in mine." She said simply, turning in his arms so that she could bury her head in his neck. She felt safe once again, "Is this a dream?"  
  
"No." he told her.  
  
"But you're here."  
  
"And I'm not leaving again. The Oracles bound my soul and told me that I needed to come back and help you."  
  
"So," she said, pushing him away. "You didn't come of your own free will. Am I now when of your lost souls?"  
  
"Never. You are my life and my love, my will to live." He declared, pulling her back into his arms. "Where is the gang?"  
  
"Home."  
  
"And why are you here?"  
  
"Because I could feel you coming and they were arguing."  
  
"Oh," he said, looking thoughtful, "How about we go back and tell them where you are and we can get you cleaned up?" Buffy tensed, if she went back to the house her dream would end and Angel would leave her alone, again.  
  
"I'm not leaving." He told her; like he could read her mind. "I'm not leaving ever again." She nodded slowly and let him take her back to her house, where he knocked on the door and waited for someone to open it.  
  
"Angel!" Dawn exclaimed, as she opened the door, she spotted Buffy hiding behind him, "Buffy, when did you leave?" Buffy ducked her head behind Angel and grabbed onto his shirt, making it impossible for Angel to move without her. Sighing, Angel turned so that he was facing Buffy and picked her up in his arms, where she promptly burrowed her head into his neck.  
  
"Can we come in?" he asked and Dawn stepped back, allowing them to enter. "Thanks. Where is everyone else?" Dawn pointed to the living room and Angel made his way that way, with Buffy. Xander, Tara, Willow, and Anya appeared to be in a heated discussion. "Hi." He said and everyone turned to him, with shocked expressions on their faces.  
  
"Angel!" they yelled together.  
  
"That is my name, last time I checked." He said and smiled when Buffy gave a small giggle, drawing everyone attention to her. Xander got up and moved to take her, but she threw her arms around Angel and burrowed even deeper into his embrace, while Angel simply tightened his hold on her and glared at the boy.  
  
"We can take care of her." Xander stated, indicating that Angel should hand Buffy over to them.  
  
"Yea, I can see that. She hasn't washed since she came back, she left the house and none of you knew it, and unless I miss my guess she hasn't spoken to any of you or eaten." Angel stated and each one of them had a guilty expression on their face. "Yea, I can see that you are taking care of her."  
  
"It was just a matter of time." Xander started but was interrupted by Angel.  
  
"Before what, she either killed herself or before you started to use magic on her, to make her forget?" he asked, Willow looked sheepish, while Tara looked shocked at the very thought. Angel started to growl at the thought of Willow using anymore magic on Buffy, who started to become agitated at his growling, immediately causing Angel to start to purr, making Buffy relax back into his embrace. "We are going to shower." He told them and Xander and Willow stood up.  
  
"You can't!" Xander declared and Willow nodded.  
  
"Your soul."  
  
"Is safe." He told them and turned from the room, leaving it in chaos and going upstairs. He set Buffy on the bed and went to her dresser, where he grabbed her p.j.'s and turned to get her, only to find her in the closet going through things, until she came to a trunk.  
  
"What are you doing? I have your p.j's." he told her.  
  
"I thought you would be more comfortable in sweat pants, instead of the jeans." She said, pulling a pair of sweatpants and wife beater out, which Angel immediately recognized as his.  
  
"When did you get those?"  
  
"Right after you lost your soul." She told him and then led the way to the bathroom, grabbing two fluffy towels for them to dry off with. Angel followed her into the bathroom and they helped each other undress and they stepped into the shower, Angel washing both of them. Angel took one of the towels and dried Buffy off, but when he went to put her p.j.'s on, she grabbed the shirt he had been wearing earlier and put that on and then waited for him to get dressed. He carried her back to her room, where he closed the blinds and crawled into bed with Buffy, wrapping her in his arms, both of them falling into a deep sleep. 


	3. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I am not Joss, if I were Angel and Buffy would be together and the sucky season would never had happened.  
  
Chapter 2  
  
Buffy awoke and she tensed, realizing that she was being held, she then sighed when she remembered that her Angel had come back to her. She rolled over in his arms so that she could look at him. He looked so innocent when he was asleep, okay so he wasn't breathing and that was just creepy, but he looked at peace for once. She tried to figure out what had awoken her, when she heard a buzzing come from Angel's coat pocket, reaching for she found a cel phone. Buffy smiled as she answered it.  
  
"Hello?"  
  
"Who is this and why do you have Angel's phone?" a woman on the other end asked, Buffy immediately recognized the voice as Cordy.  
  
"Hey, Cordy, nice to hear from you too." She whispered, hoping that she wouldn't awaken Angel. She tried to get out of his arms so that she could take the conversation into the hallway, but Angel growled at her whenever she tried to.  
  
"Who is this?"  
  
"Buffy."  
  
"But -But you're dead."  
  
"Well, yes I was." She said, giggling at Cordy's bewildered voice.  
  
"When?"  
  
"A couple of days ago. But Angel showed up last night."  
  
"Can I talk to him?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"Because I am not going to wake him, but if you want to leave a message you can go right ahead."  
  
"I just wanted to make sure that he was okay and that he still had his soul, because you have a tendency to break his heart and leave him all soulless and stuff."  
  
"Yes, well he still has his soul and he is sleeping right now. Bye Cordy, I'll have Angel call you later." Buffy hung up the phone before Cordy could reply and then turned the phone off, before she snuggled back into Angel's arms and went back to sleep.  
  
When Dawn got up to go to school, she peaked into Buffy's room to make sure that Buffy was still there and that the windows were closed so Angel wouldn't get a tan. She looked at Buffy and Angel, who she had never seen so relaxed. Her sister seemed like a new person and she was glad that Angel had come back and was there for Buffy.  
  
"Did you need something?" Angel whispered, he had woken up when the younger Summers had opened the door.  
  
"No," Dawn whispered back, jumping slight, because she hadn't realized that he was awake, "I just wanted to check and make sure that the windows were closed." She told him and turned to walk out the door.  
  
"I woke up during the night just to make sure she was there too." Angel whispered to her and Dawn smiled and left the room. Angel looked down at Buffy and smiled, she looked so trusting and innocent, but Angel knew what horrors she had experienced. He smiled grimly and mentally berated himself for not being there when she really needed him.  
  
"It wasn't your fault."  
  
"Hey, I didn't know you were awake." Angel told her, "Would you like something to eat?"  
  
"Are you cooking?" Buffy asked and then looked at him sharply, "And don't for one moment think that you are getting out of that conversation."  
  
"Yes I am." He told her and he got up to go down stairs, "And we will talk about everything later on." He picked her up and carried her down stairs, where Willow, Tara, Dawn and Xander were sitting around the table having breakfast, cereal. Buffy made a face when she noticed what they were having and Angel chuckled, causing everyone to look at them.  
  
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you." Dawn said, looking at Angel and Buffy in concern.  
  
"No, you didn't wake us." Angel reassured the younger Summers, "Your sister was hungry, so I promised to make her breakfast."  
  
"What are you making?" Dawn asked and Angel looked at Buffy.  
  
"Pancakes." She said and Angel moved through the kitchen gathering supplies.  
  
"Anyone else?" he asked and everyone nodded.  
  
"I'm sorry Angel." Xander said, finally, "We did need help and I wasn't willing to admit it." Angel looked at Xander and realized just how much Xander had changed since high school.  
  
"It's okay." He told him, as he mixed the batter. He began to pour the pancakes onto the griddle, when Buffy got up and went to the fridge. "Did you want something?" he asked, almost like if she moved by herself she would break.  
  
"No, but I thought you might be hungry." She told him as she looked through the fridge. "Ah-ha!" she declared, when she found the blood.  
  
"And why do you keep blood?"  
  
"For Spike." The Buffy-bot answered, when she came into the room. "He is sexy." Angel raised an eyebrow at the bot and then looked at the rest of the group. "You must be Angel, you are a bloody-wanker."  
  
"Spike had it built." Buffy supplied, while she put the blood in a cup and then in the microwave to heat it up. "To have sex with, because he couldn't have me." Angel growled and immediately went into game face, causing everyone to gasp, except for Buffy, who took the blood out of the microwave and handed it to.  
  
"It's okay." She told him, stroking his face and making him calm down, "He could never have me and okay it's uber creepy, but hey she does come in useful."  
  
"For what?"  
  
"We used her to trick Glory." She said and everyone immediately quieted down, not willing to admit that Buffy had died. "It's okay guys. I'm fine, safe and sound." She told them and only Angel was not impressed with the speech, his look told her that they would be talking later.  
  
"Alright, who wants the first pancakes?" he asked, taking them of the griddle.  
  
"Me." Buffy said and smiled when she was served first. Everyone in the room smiled in relief, to see their old Buffy back. Angel finished the pancakes and was getting up with his glass of blood.  
  
"Where are you going?" Buffy asked, getting up to follow him.  
  
"Sit, eat, I'm just going to drink my breakfast in another room." Angel told her and turned to leave again.  
  
"Angel, it is okay for you to eat in here with us." Willow told him, patting the spot between her and Buffy. "We don't mind, in fact we insist."  
  
"That's right dead boy, you have to eat in here with us, it is tradition." Xander put in and everyone nodded their agreement. Angel sighed in defeat and made his way over to the table, taking the seat next to Buffy, who curled up to his side and as he drank, he looked for any signs of disgust, so that he could leave. No one showed any signs of disgust, they continued on with their discussion like nothing was wrong! They were almost done with breakfast, when the doorbell rang.  
  
"Everyone I know is here." Buffy said and then thought about the one person who wasn't there, she quickly got up and threw open the door. "Giles!" 


	4. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I am not Joss, if I were Angel and Buffy would be together and the sucky season would never had happened.  
  
Chapter 3  
  
"Giles!" Buffy exclaimed, throwing open the door even further and rushing out to give Giles a hug, a little too enthusiastic hug.  
  
"Buffy," Giles said, his arms around her, "needing to breathe."  
  
"Oh." Buffy exclaimed releasing him from her death hold, "Sorry, forget my own strength." She told him and then motioned him inside. "When did you arrive?" she asked, moving closer to Angel so that Angel could wrap his arms around her waist.  
  
"Just got in, actually." He told her and then eyed the vampire cautiously. "Angel, good to see you." He said finally and offered his hand.  
  
"You too, it's been a while."  
  
"Speaking of being a while," Buffy said, realizing that she had forgotten to give Angel the message from Cordy. "Cordy called while you were sleeping and I told her that you would call her back." Angel nodded and moved to go up the stairs, but was stopped by Buffy following him up the stairs.  
  
"Where you going?" he asked.  
  
"Wanted to make sure that you found the phone." She told him, continuing on up the stairs and into her room, where she grabbed his cel phone and came back out. "See." She told him, grabbing his arm and dragging him back down the stairs, sitting him in a chair where she promptly climbed into his lap, she gave him the phone. Giles looked on with interest at the interaction between the two, it was almost like Buffy was afraid that Angel would leave should he leave her sight.  
  
"How long are you staying?" Dawn asked, breaking into his thoughts.  
  
"For as long as she needs me."  
  
"Forever." Buffy told him and gave him a watery smile, which caused everyone to 'ewe.'  
  
"That is so cute." Dawn told them.  
  
"Aren't you supposed to be at school?" Buffy asked, looking at the clock.  
  
"Come on, you're back and Giles is back, isn't that reason enough to stay home?" she asked in a pleading voice.  
  
"You've stayed home for the last couple of days, since they brought me back, it is time for you to go to school." Buffy told her in a firm voice, pointing to the door, "Now, march!"  
  
"Ai, Ai, drill sergeant." Dawn declared, giving Buffy a fake salute, which made Buffy throw a pillow at her.  
  
"Come on Dawnie," Xander said, "I have to get to work, so I will drive you." Dawn and Xander took one last look at Buffy and then headed out the door, both of them calling their goodbyes.  
  
"So," Buffy said, "What have you been doing in the mother country?" Giles was about to answer when Angel shouted.  
  
"What! You can't come here!" he declared.  
  
"Why the hell not?" Cordy asked, "I used to live there. Besides Buffy is back from the dead and stuff, we can come visit until you decide that you are going back to LA." She told them, as she motioned for Wesley, Fred, Lorne, and Gunn to start packing.  
  
"Because there is not enough room for you here." He told her, getting very frustrated with her.  
  
"That's fine, we can live with you at the mansion."  
  
"I'm not living at the mansion."  
  
"What do you mean you are not living at the mansion?" Cordy asked, jealousy leaking into her voice. "Are you living with her?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Then so can we."  
  
"You cannot just invite yourself to live in their house. She is already living with Willow, Tara, and Dawn and Giles just arrived." Angel said, trying to make Cordy think a bit rationally.  
  
"It's going to get crowded on the couch with Giles there." She said, trying to get information.  
  
"Cordy, I cannot make you stay in LA, but there is no possible way that you can live here, unless you want to live in the basement. So, if you want to come and visit, you can use the mansion, but I have to warn you it hasn't been lived in, in a couple of years." Angel told her, frustrated that she wouldn't listen to him and unwilling to tell her that he was staying in Buffy's room. Buffy took the phone from him.  
  
"Cordy, can't wait to see you." She told her and Cordy smiled in satisfaction, she always got her way. "You'll be staying at the mansion." Before Cordy could reply Buffy hung up the phone and handed it back to Angel. "All done." She told him and kissed him, Giles cleared his throat.  
  
"Yes," he said, "Where will you be staying, Angel?"  
  
"In my room."  
  
"But what about his soul?" Giles asked, his eyes darkening with pain, at his remembered loss of Jenny.  
  
"Is bound." Angel supplied for him. "My demon can never return."  
  
"I see." Giles said, taking his glasses off and cleaning them.  
  
"C'mon Giles," Willow interrupted, leading him into the kitchen, "We were just having breakfast, if you want some."  
  
"Sounds lovely, what are we having?"  
  
"Pancakes." Buffy supplied, smiling brightly.  
  
"You didn't cook, did you?" Giles asked, looking horrified at the thought of Buffy in the kitchen.  
  
"No," she told him as she hit him playfully, "Angel did."  
  
"At least we won't be dying from food poisoning or something like that." He told her, while Buffy pouted everyone else started to laugh.  
  
"You know it's true Buffy." Willow told her, "Remember the time that you tried to make eggs and you almost burnt down his house?"  
  
"Hey! I have changed since then." She declared, glaring at all of them, "Remember Thanksgiving?"  
  
"Ya," Willow said, "You went all drill sergeant-ny on us." Buffy pouted even more, until she realized that they were right and she started to laugh with them. Giles slightly smiled, happy to see his slayer once more alive, she seemed more alive now then when she jumped. Suddenly the back door crashed open.  
  
"Is it true?" A familiar British voice exclaimed, "She's back?" Spike threw off the blanket and rushed forward to give her a hug, only he was pulled back by his very pissed off sire, who was very much in game face. "Well if it isn't the bloody pounce." He declared and went flying back as Angel threw him across the room.  
  
"You, stay away from my mate." Angel said, each word snarled out.  
  
"I think that you do that enough for the both of us." Spike told him as he got up and wiped the blood from his mouth. The vampires started to circle each other, both in game face and both growling.  
  
"Angel, Spike! This is not needed." Giles said, stepping between the two vampires. Spike placed his hand on Giles' chest and pushed, Giles went flying back into the wall and was knocked unconscious. Buffy rushed to Giles side and checked to make sure that he was okay. She got up and glared at the two vampires, she slowly walked over and stood in the middle.  
  
"What have I said about testosterone poisoning?"  
  
"That they turn all men into morons." Willow muttered.  
  
"No, they were already like that." Tara said and the girls started to laugh, while the vampires simply glared. "And that's why I'm gay."  
  
"Ya, Buff, you should join us, no pissing contests or anything." Willow told her.  
  
"I'm seriously thinking about it." She replied, causing the two vampires to stare at her in shock. "Of course I could always go for the living ones." Both vampires growled and took a step closer to her.  
  
"Remember Captain Corn head?" Spike asked, "The vampire whore."  
  
"Of course there always was Dracula." Willow put in, "He had that whole gypsy tricks and everything, but hey he didn't do the pissing contests."  
  
"You are right," Buffy agreed, "And the plus his bite was more erotic than anything."  
  
"Dracula bite you?" Angel exclaimed, closing the distance between them and pulling her head to the side so that he could see her neck, when he was certain there was no bite mark on that side he checked the other. "Wait until I get my hands on that no good gypsy bastard."  
  
"Of course you would have to go back to Hell to do it." Buffy told him, "I dusted his ass." Smirking she stepped away from Angel and turned back to willow, "Maybe I could get together with that one guy, what's his name."  
  
"Which one?" Willow asked, "The one that turned out to be the host of Glory or the one that you hit with the club?"  
  
"Well, didn't we kill the Glory one?" she asked, while Angel and Spike looked at them in confusion. "How is the other one doing? Still having intimacy problems?"  
  
"Was this before or after he hit on me?" Willow asked and Angel growled once again at the thought of someone hurting his mate. Giles groaned and Buffy rushed to his side, helping him stand up.  
  
"I'm definitely back in Sunnydale." He said, "I've already been knocked unconscious." They all laughed, while Giles looked around, "So who won the fight?"  
  
"Buffy." Tara supplied and laughed when both vampires seemed to pout.  
  
"Well she always did kick my ass." A voice that Buffy never wanted to hear again, said from the doorway, causing both Angel and Spike to growl loudly, while Angel stepped in front of Buffy.  
  
"Like that was hard." Angel muttered under his breath, securing Buffy behind him and between his childe, better him than that.  
  
"What do you want, Riley?" Willow asked, unmasked hostility in her voice. 


	5. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I am not Joss, if I were Angel and Buffy would be together and the sucky season would never had happened.  
  
Chapter 4  
  
"What do you want, Riley?" Willow asked, with unmasked hostility.  
  
"To talk to Buffy." He said, pushing his way into the room, trying to get a look at Buffy. But she was hiding behind Angel and was burrowing into him further, with every passing moment, until she was Angel's second skin. Spike stepped closer, until he was beside Angel, offering more protection to Buffy. Angel sent him a look that said they would talk later, but he nodded, acknowledging his childe's ability to protect his mate. "Aww, isn't that so cute?" Riley asked sarcastically.  
  
"Captain Cornhead, why don't you go find a vampire whore to bite you?" Spike asked, when Riley moved closer, both vampires pushed him back.  
  
"That was a mistake." He said, trying more to convince himself than anyone else.  
  
"A mistake?" Buffy asked, "A mistake is running into someone by accident or hitting them with the door, when you are opening it. Paying some vampire whore to suck your blood is a suicide wish!" she said, although her voice was muffled by Angel's shirt, Buffy was shaking in barely suppressed rage, while Angel and Spike simply morphed into their vampiric faces and growled.  
  
"I wanted to know what hold he had over you." Riley said, pointing to Angel although it was lost to Buffy who he still couldn't see. "After Dracula, you pulled further and further away from me.."  
  
"I was never yours." She said, "I was Angel's, always." She said and Angel smiled happily around his fangs, causing Riley to step back. "He has my heart, that is the hold he has over me."  
  
"I don't accept that." He said finally, "We were fine, until Dracula,"  
  
"We were never fine, I was just fooling myself. If Angel had come back at any point, I would have dropped you like a fly." She said.  
  
"Graham was right." Riley said turning to leave, "I am better than you, because you are a whore." Angel and Spike growled louder, while Tara, Willow, and Giles gasped, each taking a step back, so that they were out of the vampires way. Buffy wrapped her arms around his waist, restraining Angel, but not Spike, who stalked closer to Riley.  
  
"What are you going to do, glare at me?" he asked, as the chipped vampire approached him.  
  
"No," Spike said simply, before decking him, sending him sprawling into the wall. Everyone waited for Spike to clutch his head, but it never came.  
  
"But the chip?" Riley asked in confusion, holding his nose, which he was pretty sure was broken.  
  
"Is taking a vacation far away from my head." Spike muttered, as he picked up Riley. "Now, leave, don't ever come back. You are very lucky that it was me and not my bloody sire that got a hold of you, because you wouldn't be walking away right now." He dragged Riley over to the door and threw him out. Buffy started to clap, startling everyone, except Spike who started to bow. "I would like to thank Dru for making me and Angelus for teaching me everything I know."  
  
"Thank you, childe." Angel said, as Buffy stepped out from behind him and kissed Spike on the cheek. An understanding passed between the two, Angel would tolerate Spike so long as he kept his distance from his mate.  
  
"So," Giles said, as he cleared his throat, "you got the chip out?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"And?"  
  
"And what, Rupes?"  
  
"What do you plan on doing?" Giles asked, irritated with the vampire.  
  
"Help the slayer."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because." Spike said, not willing to answer that he loved her, but everyone simply nodded.  
  
"If you betray her, you will not be able to hide anywhere in the world." Ripper told him and Spike really believed him. "Well that was enough excitement for me. If you could show me to the linens." Buffy nodded and Willow went and got them, they made him a bed and then went back into the kitchen where Spike and Angel were talking.  
  
"I give you my word, sire." He said and Angel nodded.  
  
"Are we interrupting?" Buffy asked, as she began to pick up, Angel quickly got up and finished the job.  
  
"No," he said, "I was talking to my childe and he will be staying in the basement, if that is alright with you?" Buffy nodded, as she absently went through the fridge.  
  
"We should probably go and get food and stuff." Buffy said, looking at the bare fridge, Willow and Tara looked a bit sheepish. "What?"  
  
"Well, we were going to wait until later, but" Willow started, looking at Tara for support, "You are basically almost broke."  
  
"Not true." Angel said and everyone but Spike looked at him, "I have money that she is entitled to."  
  
"No, Angel, this is my problem and.."  
  
"And nothing." Angel said, "You are my mate and I won't have you working as well as slaying and I have the money, trust me there is enough of it."  
  
"Understatement of the bloody year." Spike said, then looked at Buffy, "Look pet, we are vampires we acquire lots of things and money is one of them. Peaches is a bloody millionaire or something to that extent, so am I, don't worry about the money."  
  
"I can't believe I'm going to say this," Angel said, "But Spike is right." Buffy hugged both of them.  
  
"Thank you." She said, "now if we can make it through the rest of the day, without surprise."  
  
"I don't know," a familiar voice sounded from the doorway, "Do I count?" Angel growled in frustration and Buffy hid behind Angel, unwilling to face the new visitors.  
  
"Hey, Cordelia," Willow said, "Have you met Tara, my girlfriend?" 


	6. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I am not Joss, if I were Angel and Buffy would be together and the sucky season would never had happened.  
  
Chapter 5  
  
"Girlfriend?" Cordy asked, "Batting for the other team are you?" she asked being, as usual, tactless. Her jealously flared as Buffy hid behind Angel, unwilling to come out, Willow and Tara shrugged a sorry. "Hi Angel, Buffy."  
  
"Hi Cordy." Angel said, as Buffy held onto him tighter, "We weren't expecting you until later."  
  
"I can see that." she replied, "Wasn't that your boyfriend we saw leaving?" Buffy shuddered behind Angel and instinctively held on a little tighter, making Angel wince, before he turned around and picked her up and sat down on a chair with her in his lap.  
  
"Ex-boyfriend." She muttered and Cordy had to strain to hear her.  
  
"So," Cordy asked, "you broke up with him, when you found out that you and Angel could groiny?"  
  
"Cordy." Angel growled out his warning, but Cordy, like always, didn't heed it. Buffy burrowed deeper into Angel's embrace, trying to hide.  
  
"The bloke was paying vampires to bite him." Spike said, "And that was before she di-went away." Everyone noticed what he was about to say, but no one said anything.  
  
"Then why was he here?"  
  
"He heard she had returned."  
  
"Oh," she said, "Then you and him?"  
  
"No." Both vampires exclaimed, disgusted at the thought.  
  
"So, you and Angel are getting groiny then?"  
  
"That is none of your business." Angel said.  
  
"It is, since you are my boss and friend."  
  
"And since you want him." Spike stated Cordy turned to glare at him.  
  
"No one asked you, bleached wonder." Cordy said and Spike advanced on her, intent on taking a nibble or two. "And besides I don't like him like that."  
  
"Childe," Angel said, and Spike stopped and looked at him questioningly, "I know, leave it for now."  
  
"I can smell it you ninny," Spike said, hoping to goad her into doing something.  
  
"Eww, gross." Cordy exclaimed, "Why didn't you tell me Angel?"  
  
"Probably because of your reaction." Buffy told her and Cordy glared at her, causing her to burrow further into Angel, while Spike went back and sat beside them.  
  
"Well, aren't you the whipped puppy?" she asked and Spike growled, but that wasn't what shocked them. It was Buffy moving at a speed so fast that no one saw her move, except Angel felt her get up and then return and then Cordy was sprawled on the ground with a swollen eye.  
  
"You bitch!" Cordy exclaimed, as Gunn helped her up.  
  
"No, you have that title," Buffy said, "Get out of my house." Everyone sighed in relief the bitch was leaving.  
  
"Not until Angel talks to me." Cordy said.  
  
"We can do this the easy way or the hard way, either way I'll have fun."  
  
"Please do it the hard way." Spike exclaimed, wanting to see the seer bleed. Everyone waited tensely, before Cordy turned on her heel and walked out of the house, the slamming door alerting everyone.  
  
"Uhm, we haven't met, but I'm Fred." She said, breaking the silence and offering her hand to Angel's second skin. Buffy detached herself from Angel and turned to face them. She appraised the group. None of them set off her spidey sense so she shook their hands.  
  
"I'm Gunn."  
  
"I'm Lorne, my little peach." The green demon said, "And you are the other half to Angel-cakes here. A pleasure to finally meet you, I have seen you every time I read him." Buffy turned and looked at Angel questioningly.  
  
"Lorne reads people's souls when they sing."  
  
"Note to self, do not sing around Lorne, check." She said and turned back to the group, "No need to introduce this one." She told them, indicating Wes, "Hey watcher dude. How are you doing? I notice the tweed and suites are gone. Better look for you."  
  
"Good to see you again, Buffy." Wes said, "And yes, a much better look for me."  
  
"I got Wesley here fired." Buffy said, at the questioning looks. "This is Willow, Tara, and Spike. Giles is asleep on the couch and Dawn is at school. Xander and Anya are at work." She told them, "You can stay here I have some room or you can go to the mansion."  
  
"I'll stay with you peaches." Lorne said and Buffy giggled, which made everyone smiled. Maybe this would be good for her after all.  
  
"We'll go to the mansion with Cordelia." Wesley said, speaking up for Gunn and Fred.  
  
"Alright." Angel said, "Where are you going?" Buffy had gotten up from his lap and was making her way to get shoes and a purse.  
  
"Shopping," she told him, "Have to get food for these guys and you and Spike."  
  
"Someone else can do it." Angel protested, not wanting her out of his sight.  
  
"Nope, but they can come with me." She told him, knowing that she would have to leave the house at some point. Angel nodded reluctantly; Willow and Tara moved to get their stuff together.  
  
"Childe we need to talk." Angel said when the group left. "I know you love her."  
  
"No I do-"  
  
"Yes you do, I can see it written all over your face." He interrupted. "She likes you and right now that is useful. If you start hunting I will stake you myself."  
  
"I can go without hunting, sire, I didn't kill my family."  
  
"You would've killed mine too had you met them." Angel said, "Nothing more than a friendship though. I have claimed her and while I normally would share women I have claimed, not my mate." Angel told him.  
  
"Alright." Spike said, but it didn't mean he couldn't dream. "So, can I kill your seer?"  
  
"No, but Buffy might."  
  
"Can you blame her?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Take some blood?"  
  
"No,"  
  
"Please?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Just a little?"  
  
"No."  
  
"A nibble?"  
  
"Maybe." 


	7. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I am not Joss, if I were Angel and Buffy would be together and the sucky season would never had happened, the song is Martina McBride's "Safe in the Arms of Love."  
  
Chapter 6  
  
Buffy, Willow, and Tara walked Wesley, Fred, and Gunn to the mansion on Crawford Street, there they said their goodbyes and then went to the store. They hadn't wanted to deal with Cordy again so they didn't accept the invitation to go into the mansion. They made their way to the only grocery store in Sunnydale and went inside.  
  
"So," Willow asked, "What do we need?"  
  
"Milk, cereal, sugar, meat, veggies, and fruits." Buffy replied. They split up into three sections; divide and conquer. They met back at the cash register, where the put all the stuff together and waited in line.  
  
"And what is this?" Willow asked holding up ice cream.  
  
"A dairy product?" Buffy replied and everyone laughed, Buffy was slowly going back to being herself.  
  
"Fine, fine, we can get the ice cream."  
  
"I wasn't asking you anyways, mom." She retorted. When they reached the register and Buffy paid for everything they had collected. She grabbed most of the bags leaving only a few for Willow and Tara. After a quick stop at the butcher's they returned to the Summer's residence. Back at the house Spike and Angel quickly took the bags and put the items into the fridge and the cabinets.  
  
"Wow, that didn't take you nearly as long as we thought." Angel said. The girls looked at him.  
  
"We know how to shop thank you."  
  
"We know that's why we were afraid." Spike replied and the three girls mocked hit him.  
  
"As well as you should be." Buffy told him and the girls laughed, turning around and walking out, leaving Spike and Angel alone, again.  
  
"Well," Angel said looking around and then getting up, "I'm going to follow the blonde."  
  
"Whipped." Spike coughed into his hand smirking at Angel.  
  
"So are you." Angel told him; then smirked when Spike started to pout.  
  
"I'm the big bad."  
  
"That's why we love you." Buffy told him as she walked into the conversation. "Sorry, big bad, but I'm stealing Angel here." She grabbed Angel and led him up to her room; they could hear Giles on the couch, Willow and Tara talking to Lorne, and Spike moving things in the basement. "We need to talk." She sat down on the bed and folded her hands onto her lap.  
  
"Yes, we do." Angel agreed, taking a seat on the bed next to Buffy. "You go first." Buffy took a calming breath and began.  
  
"I already know that you know I was in Hell." She began, finding everything but him interesting at that moment. "I'm not sure how much the Powers let you see, but they tortured me with images of you and Cordelia together and she always killed you. They showed me Angelus before he was cursed with a soul and they would take his shape and they would get in a line and.." Buffy started to cry as she remembered everything that had happened to her, Angel's heart broke as he listened to her, he gathered her in his arms and rocked her back and forth.  
  
"It's okay love," he told her, hugging her gently, "It's okay."  
  
"No, it really isn't." Buffy cried onto his shoulder. "They would line up and take turns raping me! I really don't find that okay."  
  
"Neither do I, but they are gone now." he tried to comfort her, but his heart was breaking over and over again, as he silently cried with her, he shuddered in barely restrained rage. "I won't let them hurt you anymore."  
  
"I used to dream about you." She said, "After you left and in my dreams you promised me forever, but you always left me." She took a deep breath and continued, "When I was there, they would taunt me with images of you promising to stay and then leaving. You would always save me, but then you would always give me back to them. Because you were disgusted with me."  
  
"I am not disgusted with you." He told her ferociously, making her turn around and face him.  
  
"Yes, you are." She told him, "I could feel you shudder when I was telling you what had happened." She tried to burrow back into his embrace, but he was unwilling to let her, "Not that I can blame you though."  
  
"I shuddered in rage." Angel told her, forcing her to look at him. "I love you and I am not disgusted in you. If anyone should be disgusted, it should be you at me." Buffy looked at him curiously, so he continued on, "I should have been here for the Glory fight, but when I came back and held you that night at your mother's funeral, I felt happy and I wanted nothing more than to run away in fear, but on the other hand I wanted to glorify in the feeling."  
  
"Angel, it wasn't your fault."  
  
"I should have been here."  
  
"It wouldn't have mattered, the portal was open and I wasn't going to let my sister jump when I could have saved her."  
  
"But I should have been here." Angel yelled, "The Mohara demon told us that we were stronger-" he trailed off as he realized what he was about to say.  
  
"Together, then apart." she finished for him and Angel looked at her sharply.  
  
"Where did you hear that?"  
  
"It's okay, Angel." she told him, trying to calm him down, "I remember. The memories where flashes and fleeting at first and I thought I was just going nuts, but then they continued until I could remember all of it and I could hear someone telling me that they were memories. I was angry at you," she caressed his face and he got up to pace, wanting to be agitated, "so angry, because of what you had done, but I could understand."  
  
"But why didn't you confront me?"  
  
"Because it was my turn to act mature." she told him, Angel looked at her in confusion, "you had changed so much and it was so good for you and I wanted you to continue on and if I had told you, you wouldn't have been able to do it. Besides, you would have gone to the Oracles to have them erase the day again and it was what kept me going in the following months."  
  
"I wanted to tell you." He confessed. "I wanted to rush to Sunnydale and beat up Riley and take you far away from here and make love to you."  
  
"Well," Buffy said winking at him, "What is stopping you? You can even go beat up Riley if you want." Angel stopped moving altogether and stared at her in shock registering what she had said to him, before he swept her up in his arms and kissed her.  
  
"Buffy!" Dawn yelled as she walked through the door. "I'm home."  
  
"Never would have known." She muttered and she could feel Angel smile, "Hold that thought." She kissed him again, before stepping out of his embrace and going down stairs, leaving Angel staring after her with a huge smile on his face.  
  
"How was school?" she asked, when she reached the bottom of the stairs.  
  
"Good." She replied, "And how was your day?" she asked grinning like the Cheshire cat.  
  
"Good, we went shopping." Buffy told her and Dawn immediately went into the kitchen to get something to eat, Buffy laughed and Dawn glared at her.  
  
"Hey, Dawn." Angel said, coming into the room and wrapping his arms around Buffy.  
  
"Hey." She replied and looked at them, she smiled at the picture they made. "Well, I have to go do homework." She took off for her room, smiling the entire way there.  
  
"And I am going to shower." Buffy said, pulling Angel down for a kiss.  
  
"Want help?" he asked and Buffy laughed.  
  
"We would never leave." She told him and he pouted. "The next time I shower you can help all you want." She promised and turned and went upstairs, grabbing fresh clothes and heading into the shower.  
  
"Heart's not ready for the rockin' chair/ I need somebody who really cares/ So tired of living solitaire/ Some day I'm gonna be safe in the arms of love/ Strip your heart and it starts to snow/ Love is a high wire act I know/ Someday I'll find a net below/ Someday I'm going to be safe in the arms of love." Buffy sang as she washed her hair, Lorne walked by the door and stopped to listen, she had a beautiful voice. He was assaulted by a myriad of emotions and images; her love for Angel, the pain of Hell, and the confusion of being there, but there was something else.  
  
"Safe in the arms of love/ I want arms that know how to rock me/ Safe in the arms of love/ I wanna fall and know that love has caught me/ Safe in the arms of love/ Safe in the arms of love/ I wanna heart to be forever mine/ I want eyes to see me satisfied/ I'm gonna hang my heartaches out to dry/ Someday I'm gonna be safe in the arms of love/ Safe in the arms of love/ I want arms that know how to rock me/ Safe in the arms of love/ I wanna fall and know that love has caught me/ Safe in the arms of love/ Safe in the arms of love/ Safe in the arms of love."  
  
Lorne stood in shock, as she finished singing and turned off the shower. She wasn't human and she wasn't alone! 


	8. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I am not Joss, if I were Angel and Buffy would be together and the sucky season would never had happened.  
  
Author's Note: I have moved, so it might take me longer to update things. Sorry.  
  
Chapter 7  
  
Lorne tracked Angel down as quickly as possible, which considering the size of the house did not take that long at all.  
  
"Hey, Lorne." Angel said, as Lorne walked into the dining room. "What's going on?" Lorne shifted from foot to foot unsure of how to Angel that the love of his life wasn't completely human anymore.  
  
"Well," he stuttered out, "I was going by the bathroom and I could hear Buffy singing in the shower."  
  
"And? What did you read?" he asked, anxiety leaking into his voice.  
  
"She's not human." He blurted out and immediately realized that it was the wrong thing to say, because Angel vamped out and started growling.  
  
"What do you mean she's not human?"  
  
"She's human," Lorne corrected and Angel calmed down, while Lorne sighed in relief, "But she is something more than human, she was changed."  
  
"Changed how?"  
  
"I don't know."  
  
"What don't you know?" Buffy asked, walking into the room, startling both guys.  
  
"How to cook as well as Angel-cakes here." Lorne said.  
  
"I know, for a guy that is on a liquid diet, he can cook pretty damn well." She replied, although she got the feeling that they were keeping something from her.  
  
"How was your shower?" Angel asked, trying to distract Buffy from anything she might have accidentally over heard.  
  
"Lonely." She replied crossing the room and sitting in the chair next to Angel's, which made Lorne smile, because she was making progress, she wasn't sitting in his lap.  
  
"Hey, I offered."  
  
"I know, but I wanted to be out of the shower by the next apocalypse rolled around." She replied, loving being able to talk to Angel once again.  
  
"We would have been." Angel replied defensively and continued on at Buffy's and Lorne's looks of disbelief, "They apocalypse would have interfered so we would have come out to stop it and of course we would have gotten dirty so we would have had to go right back in." he told them and they both started laughing.  
  
"Why is that not surprising?" Cordy asked, walking into the room, which immediately sent Buffy into Angel's lap, hiding from her.  
  
"I thought I kicked you out."  
  
"We both know you didn't mean it and besides you need me." She replied in typical Cordelia fashion.  
  
"How do you figure?"  
  
"I'm the only one that knows what you are."  
  
"Capricorn on the cusp of Aquarius." She replied and Angel smiled, hiding it by gently kissing Buffy on the top of the head.  
  
"You came back wrong." Cordy taunted, "You didn't think that you could actually fit in now did you?" at Buffy's look she continued, "You did! That is so pathetic."  
  
"I think you should leave now." Ripper said, from behind Cordy, making her whirl around and she glared at him.  
  
"Don't think that I'm scared of you watcher man."  
  
"I'm sorry the watcher is taking a small nap right now, but if you would like to talk to my more adolescent, overprotective side, he's ready and willing." Ripper replied, making Cordy shudder in fear.  
  
"It doesn't matter, she came back wrong and when you figure that out," she told Angel, "I will be waiting, but you will have to do a lot of crawling to get me back." Angel shuddered at the thought of crawling anywhere near Cordy, let alone back to her.  
  
"I didn't come back wrong." Buffy said catching the look Lorne and Angel shared. "What?"  
  
"It's nothing, baby."  
  
"Don't you try to distract me." She replied, jumping to her feet and glaring at him, hands on hips, "What?"  
  
"Well," Lorne said, suddenly more afraid of the pint-sized blonde than the overgrown care bear with fangs, "I was walking by when you were singing and I read your aura."  
  
"And?" she asked impatiently, she couldn't have come back wrong; it was just the shock from being back from hell.  
  
"And you aren't human." Lorne replied.  
  
"Oh! Is that all?" she asked and promptly passed out; Angel caught her before she could hit the ground. He carried her up to her room, putting her in her bed, so she would be comfortable when she awoke. He wasn't sure what he was going to tell her, he wasn't sure that he could tell her anything that would calm her down, because he really didn't know, but he knew someone that did. He would take her to the Oracles, as soon as she awoke, which she should have by now.  
  
"Angel." She murmured, "I had the weirdest dream. Lorne told me that I wasn't human."  
  
"Baby," Angel said, holding her close, "It wasn't a dream." Buffy jumped out of the bed.  
  
"I don't believe that! I am human. Well, okay I'm a vampire slayer, but I am human." She said, and then she suddenly got an idea. "Where's Spike?" Angel looked at her in confusion and then Buffy remembered that his chip was out, so he could hit her anyways. "Never mind." She sat down and Angel, once again, felt a pang of guilt, she just looked so lost and small and innocent. "What if I'm not human anymore?"  
  
"I will love you anyways." He promised.  
  
"Why bother?" she asked, looking at him, the pain of him leaving her evident in her eyes, "You're just going to leave anyways." He gathered her in his arms and forced her to look at him.  
  
"You know I'm not leaving you ever again." He told her, "And we can go to the Oracles and see what they can tell us."  
  
"When?"  
  
"Tonight, we can leave when the sun goes down and return right after so you can see Dawn in the morning." He told her and Buffy nodded, more than willing to go to the Oracles as long as they could tell her what she was.  
  
So plans where made so that Dawn wasn't alone and when the night fell Angel and Buffy where on their way to LA. They spent most of the time in a comfortable silence, with Buffy asleep; she slept curled up on her side, her head resting in Angel's lap, while he drove with one hand on the steering wheel and the other playing with her hair. He woke her when they reached the city limits and they stopped at the Hyperion, so he could get a gift.  
  
"The all powerful Oracles live in a Post Office." Buffy stated as Angel did the ritual to get into the chamber.  
  
"Pretty much." He replied and suddenly they were inside the chamber and Buffy was face to face with the people from her dreams.  
  
"Greetings lower beings," the male said.  
  
"What have you brought us?" the female asked, Buffy smiled, a typical female, even if she was all powerful.  
  
"Ming vase." Angel replied, holding the vase up, which floated to the male.  
  
"What is your question." He asked, slightly annoyed.  
  
"What am I?" Buffy asked.  
  
"Human," the female replied, "For the most part, but you weren't supposed to jump, your sister was."  
  
"You expected me to let my little sister jump?" Buffy asked, anger rising in her voice, Angel put a restraining hand on her arm.  
  
"Why?" Angel asked.  
  
"Dawn would have gone on to heaven, because the magical energy of the Key would have closed off the Hell deminsion to the portal." The male Oracle replied, "But since you jumped you wound up going."  
  
"It was a fluke and you weren't supposed to. We knew your friends would try and get you out, we actually pushed them to, but we needed to make sure that you would live through out the ordeal. So we changed you."  
  
"Changed me how?"  
  
"You will live forever." The female Oracle told her, "Now don't go jumping off anything, because that will kill you, but you will never age, like your vampire."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because you were still needed here." The female Oracle said, looking at her brother before continuing on, "you were supposed to give birth to his child," she said indicating Angel, "before you died, but you jumped. So we froze the pregnancy until you were returned to this dimension and made you immortal so you could survive the many years in hell." Buffy was in shock, she was pregnant and this wasn't a faulty pregnancy test, this was the Oracles!  
  
"Oh." Buffy promptly fainted and Angel caught her, before the Oracles tossed them out without another word.  
  
"Uh, thanks?" Angel said weakly to the front of the Post Office building, wondering how in the world they were going to explain to their friends how Buffy got pregnant, let alone Cordy. 


	9. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I am not Joss, if I were Angel and Buffy would be together and the sucky season would never had happened.  
  
Author's Note: I have moved, so it might take me longer to update things. Sorry.  
  
Chapter 8  
  
Buffy sat in her corner of the car in shock. Pregnant! How could she be pregnant? Well, okay she knew how, but hello! They turned back the day and add to that, that she would have been pregnant for all of the years that she was in Hell. Buffy let out a small whimper at the thought, although she hadn't even realized that she had.  
  
Angel looked at her quickly, trying to read her and understand what she was thinking. He divided his attention between the road and the woman beside him. He didn't have to worry about ever losing her again and they could have children! He was excited, but at the same time he was terrified, what if the child wasn't human? What if Buffy didn't want the baby?  
  
'Why would she want it though?' he thought bitterly, laughing at himself and calling himself a fool in ever language he ever learned.  
  
'What if he doesn't want it?' she thought, eyeing Angel out of the corner of her eye, trying to figure out what he was thinking.  
  
The tension mounted in the car, neither party was talking, but at the same time both parties were trying to figure the other one out.  
  
Angel pulled to the side of the road and put the car in park. He turned to face Buffy and was assaulted by a myriad of emotions.  
  
"What do you want to do?" he asked, hoping that she wanted to keep the baby.  
  
"What do you want to do?" she countered.  
  
"It's your decision."  
  
"Now you let me decide!" she exclaimed, still feeling the loss of him leaving. Angel flinched, but didn't try to deny it; he always had made the decisions.  
  
"We need to decide."  
  
"Yes! WE! Not me or not you, but both of us." She cried. "I want this baby more than anything in the world, but I am so terrified that you don't want him or her." Angel gathered her into his arms and rocked her, making shushing noises, before speaking.  
  
"I want this baby." He told her, his voice rough with emotions. "I am terrified that it won't be human and that you will hate him or her and me because you're pregnant." He told her and Buffy looked at him and then started laughing. Angel thought she had completely lost her mind.  
  
"We were both so afraid that the other wouldn't want the baby that we were sitting on our sides of the car biting our nails and worrying over nothing." Angel still didn't understand why she was laughing, but he laughed with her anyways. She took his hand and looked at him shyly, "so, we'll keep him or her?"  
  
"Ya." He agreed and he pulled back out into the road.  
  
"We need to think of a name." Buffy told him and she could see the wheels in his head turning. She smiled at him, because he was absolutely glowing he wanted this baby! "And we need baby things, I think we still have the crib that Dawn and I used when we were babies." Angel just smiled at her; they might have nine months.. his thoughts trailed off at that thought. How long did they have?  
  
"Uh.. just thought of this. But how far along are you?" Angel asked and Buffy looked at him strangely, before she realized what he meant.  
  
"Damn! I have no idea." She said.  
  
"You are going to have to go to the doctor's." Angel told her and waited for her to explode, but she didn't. She looked like she was having a war with herself as to whether or not she would be going. "Think of the baby." Angel encouraged and Buffy nodded.  
  
"Alright, but I'm not staying in that hospital, unless you are." She agreed and Angel nodded, this might go easier than he thought. "How are we going to tell everyone else?"  
  
"We can just tell them and if they don't like it they can leave." Angel told her bravely, although he wasn't sure how they were going to tell their friends, let alone how everyone was going to react.  
  
Two Hours Later: Entering Sunnydale  
  
Buffy looked at Angel, she was a little worried, they still hadn't figured out how to tell their friends and they were almost there! What where they going to do?  
  
Angel held onto Buffy's hand, trying to comfort her, but she wasn't having any of it.  
  
"If we turn the car around we can go back to the Hyperion and then we wouldn't have to worry about them." Buffy suggested and Angel almost laughed, almost.  
  
"They'd follow us." He told her, bursting her bubble, Buffy pouted when he told her this. "Besides I don't tan very well and the sun will be coming up shortly." He motioned to the windows and the already lightening sky. Buffy made a face, but didn't make any more objections as they pulled into her driveway.  
  
"We can go to a motel." Angel suggested, starting to feel apprehensive about getting confronted from the group. As he pulled into the driveway they both sighed in relief, because there were no other cars in the driveway except theirs and Xander's, which meant that Cordy and the rest of AI were at the mansion.  
  
As they parked the car, Dawn came bounding out of the house and down the stairs, rushing to Buffy's side of the car and helping her out and not leaving her side.  
  
"Oui! Nibblet, you never know what sort of creature is out there at this time." Spike called, rushing outside, coming to a dead stop as he saw Angel and Buffy.  
  
"Relax Spike, it's just Buffy and Angel."  
  
"I stand by my theory that you never know what sort of creature will be lurking about." He said, eyeing Angel who growled at him. "You know you love me sire."  
  
"You keep telling yourself that, peroxide boy."  
  
"And how old are you two?" Buffy asked, looking between the two vampires who were throwing insults back and forth between themselves.  
  
"Two." Dawn said and both vampires glared at her, she smiled innocently. "What?"  
  
"Well, there are two's in our ages." Spike told them, "Although Peaches is older and less mature then me." Angel glared at him and was about to retort.  
  
"Shut up." Buffy said and Spike smirked, "None of that or you will be greeting the sunrise that is about to come up." Buffy indicated to the fast rising sun behind her. Both vampires took one look at it and ran for it, into the safety of the house. "And that is how you handle vampires." Buffy told Dawn and they both started to laugh.  
  
"So, my little lambchops, what did the Oracles have to say?" Lorne asked as soon as Buffy stepped into the room. She looked around the room and saw everyone was there.  
  
'This should be fun.' Buffy thought. 


	10. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I am not Joss, if I were Angel and Buffy would be together and the sucky season would never had happened.  
  
Author's Note: I have moved, so it might take me longer to update things. Sorry.  
  
Chapter 9  
  
"So, what did the Oracles have to say?" Lorne asked and Buffy saw that everyone else had nodded.  
  
"Dawn, shouldn't you be in bed? You have school tomorrow." Buffy said, trying to turn the conversation away from the Oracles and what they had said.  
  
"Nope, today is Saturday." Dawn replied, taking a seat next to Xander and Anya on the couch.  
  
"Well, I'm beat, I'm going to hit the sack." Buffy said, faking a yawn and making her way to the stairwell.  
  
"Not so fast, Buffster." Xander said, "We all would like to know what the Oracles said and you are avoiding the subject or attempting to avoid the subject." Everyone nodded their head, except for Buffy who was looking at Angel in desperation.  
  
"Why don't we do this later, guys?" Angel suggested, "Buffy needs her sleep, you can drill us about it later today when we get up." He grabbed Buffy and picked her up, he carried them to their room, where he changed both of them into pajama's and then they both crawled into bed, with Angel's arms wrapped around Buffy, his palm cupping where their unborn child rest, Buffy slid her hand over his.  
  
"So," she began shyly, "You don't mind?"  
  
"No." he told her, he knew that she was uncertain about his feelings and who could blame her? "I am so happy that you are going to be having my child that if I could lose my soul, it would have left my body a long time ago." He gently kissed her forehead and pulled her closer to his body. "Now, go to sleep. We still have the troops to deal with later."  
  
Later that Day  
  
"What do you mean you don't know why they went to the Oracles?" they heard an angry voice ask, "Have they come back?"  
  
"Yes, Cordelia, they are back, they are asleep."  
  
"Were." Spike coughed under his hand and smiled innocently when Cordy glared at him, he coughed a few more times for good measure.  
  
"That would be correct." Angel said, as he walked down the stairs, carrying Buffy in his arms. "What are you guys doing here so early?" he questioned, looking at the clock. Buffy had only gotten 3 hours of sleep, a low growl emitted from his chest, causing everyone to look at him a bit afraid that Angelus was too close to the surface, but Buffy just snuggled closer to him.  
  
"It's not early, besides you guys should have been back from Los Angeles hours ago." Cordy said and everyone looked at her in shock, she was acting like a wife or a jealous girlfriend.  
  
"Three hours." Dawn said, "We tried to tell you that, but you were all gung ho and everything." Dawn told her and Cordy looked a bit sheepish.  
  
"But since you are already up and everything you can tell us what the Oracles said." Cordy said, quickly changing the subject away from her, everyone, although unhappy about how Cordy went about getting them up, they all wanted to know what had transpired.  
  
"Well," Buffy said, stuttering words out and looking at Angel for help.  
  
"She's pregnant."  
  
"What!" "How?" "Whose is it?" Everyone looked at Anya when she asked that question.  
  
"What! Like you weren't thinking it! C'mon, she just returns from the dead and she's pregnant, let's remember that she was with Riley before she died." Anya reminded them and everyone looked at Buffy.  
  
"It's mine." Angel growled out and Spike knew that he would just be a pain in the ass now that his mate was pregnant.  
  
"But your dead!" Cordy shouted and everyone nodded their agreement.  
  
"Thanks!" Angel said sarcastically. "I was human for a day, but I had the Oracles turn the day back to safe Buffy's life." Giles leaned forward looking absolutely fascinated, everyone else seemed in shock, except for Cordy, who was looking like her favorite toy had been stolen away from her.  
  
"Dawn?" Buffy asked and motioned her forward, "Can I have you call the doctor?"  
  
"For what?"  
  
"I need to go in and see him." She said and the room got extremely silent, Buffy was willing going to the hospital, the world was going to Hell in a hand basket. "We don't know how far along I am." Dawn left to go make the phone call and Buffy turned back to her friends.  
  
"How could you?" Cordy asked, getting up and pacing the room, Buffy merely raised a questioning eyebrow and was about to say easily when Cordy continued to rant. "He left Sunnydale to get away from you and he came to LA to be with me.. well to do good. And he was getting over you, little Miss Saves the world." Cordy ranted, pointing her finger at Buffy, she was so worked up, that she never noticed Angel shift into vamp face or hear the angry growl that came from Angel and Spike. "He was going to fall in love with me, when you up and died and then came back! It would have been fine without you."  
  
"I'm sorry that my death disturbed your love life so much." Buffy said, getting angry and shooting death glares at Cordy and Angel, for not having told her.  
  
"It wasn't like that." Angel said, trying to calm down Buffy, "I never cared for Cordy like that, I only thought of her as a friend." Cordy burst out into tears at this and ran out of the house, before anyone could stop her, Gunn got up and followed her out, everyone else was riveted to the drama that was unfolding. "I have only loved one person in my two hundred and fifty some odd years and you are her." Buffy looked at him doubtfully.  
  
"Right, which is why you never told me about her."  
  
"When was I supposed to do that?" Angel asked, trying to reason with her, "It has been a little hectic since you got back." Angel reminded her and Buffy nodded, knowing that he was right, Dawn chose that moment to walk back in.  
  
"Buffy, you have an appointment in about an hour." Dawn said and Buffy nodded, getting up to go get ready, Angel took one look at the group and followed her up the stairs.  
  
"Wow!" Willow said.  
  
"Is it always like this?" Tara asked, Fred and Lorne nodded.  
  
"Welcome to the drama that is Buffy and Angel."  
  
"Well, he did come back from Hell for her." Willow said.  
  
"He went to Hell?" Fred questioned, "Why?"  
  
"Buffy sent him."  
  
"Why did she send him to Hell?"  
  
"Because she didn't have a choice." Angel said from the doorway. "I lost my soul and was trying to bring about the end of the world and the only way to stop it was to send me to Hell, so she did what had to be done." He looked at his crew, making sure that they knew that she wasn't to blame. "I wanted to ask if you could bring her to the appointment, Willow."  
  
"Sure, I can do that."  
  
"Hey! What about little sisters?" Dawn asked, happy that there would finally be someone else younger than her, she just hoped the baby got his or her daddies height.  
  
"Little sisters are always welcome." He told her and then turned around to go back upstairs.  
  
"I think we need to throw them a party." Xander suggested and everyone nodded their agreement.  
  
"Tara and I can move out of her mom's room and into Buffy's so that they have the bigger space."  
  
"I can get the crib out and ready."  
  
"I'll make some protection charms."  
  
"And we will start researching." Giles said, nodding to Wesley and himself.  
  
"So, then I can get decorations and a cake." Anya said and everyone looked at her. "What! I get a someone to spoil and I don't have to go through labor."  
  
"So, let's get this show on the road."  
  
"What road?" Buffy asked walking into the room.  
  
"The road that leads to your appointment." Willow said, taking her arm, Buffy pouted at her, "And if you do good, then we can go baby shopping afterwards." Buffy's face lit up at the mentioning of shopping, Angel sighed and handed her his credit card, she looked at him and was about to give it back but he stopped her.  
  
"Please, it's my child too and it may be the only one I will have and you are my mate, let me do what I can." Buffy gave in reluctantly and turned to leave with Willow and Dawn, leaving the rest of them to get the show on the road.  
  
They took Buffy to the hospital where the doctor took her into the examination room and did a full examination. He walked back into the room, shortly after Buffy had changed back into her clothes.  
  
"I have your test results back."  
  
"And?" 


	11. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I am not Joss, if I were Angel and Buffy would be together and the sucky season would never had happened.  
  
Author's Note: I know that this is a really short chapter, it will be longer next time. See! Didn't I promise you that not everything is like it seems?  
  
Chapter 10  
  
"And?" Buffy anxiously asked.  
  
"You are a very healthy woman." He told her, "As far as I can figure is that you are about four or five months along and you are carrying a very healthy baby."  
  
"Can I see him?"  
  
"Well, you really can't see anything." The doctor told her and smiled gently at her disappointed expression. "But in a few months you will be able to see him or her." Buffy's face immediately brightened and her smile lit up the room. "I want you to make an appoint to come back in a month and then after that you are going to be visiting more regularly."  
  
Buffy smiled the entire way out of the medical center, she didn't even mind that she was going to have to go back to the doctor. Dawn and Willow exchanged looks, wondering if the doctor hand switched the real Buffy with a robot, because this Buffy certainly did not resemble the other Buffy.  
  
Elsewhere in Sunnydale  
  
"She is pregnant, Master. My hold on the vampire is no more, my magic will not work." She said.  
  
"It is time for the next step anyways." The demon said and then looked into the corner where a badly beaten body lay, "It is time for the seer to die and for you to disappear." He told her and they looked at Cordy, "But for now you must go back and find out as much information as possible." Demon Cordy bowed, while the real Cordy struggled to free herself from her bonds. 


	12. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I am not Joss, if I were Angel and Buffy would be together and the sucky season would never had happened.  
  
Chapter 11: Early Morning  
  
Cordelia, or the demon playing Cordelia, chuckled as she entered the house, she knew what she had to do and she was going to do it, whether her master wanted her to or not. She would kill the bitch and blame it on another and they would believe her, because she was the seer, who wouldn't believe her?  
  
"Hello?" she called out, hearing a noise behind her, she mentally shrugged, nothing would mess with her, she was evil, right? That was her last thought before darkness claimed her.  
  
Buffy's House:  
  
Buffy awoke with a start, her heart beating wildly in her chest, she thought through her dream and realized that it was prophetic.  
  
"Angel." she called gently, when that did not work she began to gently shake him, "Angel." she called a little, finally giving up she shoved him out of the bed, "Angel!"  
  
"What!" he exclaimed, game face sliding on, eyes flashing, looking around the room for the danger, his eyes settling back on the giggling Buffy. Picking himself back off the ground he stalked closer to the bed.  
  
"Now, Angel," Buffy said nervously, holding her hands up in surrender. "I just needed you to gather the others.. I had a prophetic dream." He looked at her and nodded, he pretended to turn around and leave nad then he pounced on her, careful of the baby. He kissed her passionately, before breaking away.  
  
"Good morning." he said, smirking at her, before he turned to go.  
  
"You might want to put some clothes on." Buffy told him, before running from the room. Angel looked down and if he could have blushed he would have done so in an instant.  
  
"Damn that woman." he said, shaking his head, with a smile on his face, happiness evident on his face. He quickly threw his clothes and then made his way downstairs, where the assembled Scoobies where waiting. He threw a mock glare at Buffy, before she pulled him to a seat and sat on him, he pulled her into his arms and nuzzled her neck.  
  
"Alright guys," Buffy said, "I need Giles and Wesley to start immediate recon on my dream." she began and the rest shifted uncomfortably, why where they there, "The rest of you are going to be searching for the building and the real Cordy."  
  
"What do you mean the real Cordy?" Angel asked, confusion written on his face. "Sorry, hon, but the thing that has been with you for the last couple of years is not Cordelia that we all knew and loved in highschool." Buffy told him and hugged him, silently telling him that it wasn't his fault. "I had a dream tonight, a slayer dream.." so she told the group her dream again, "Alright, let's do this, you all have your assignments." The group began to disburse, Angel, Fred, Lorne, and Gunn going to ward the sewer exit, Tara, Xander, Willow, and Anya leaving by the front door, while Dawn went and grabbed the demon books they kept at the house and Giles went to get some more at his house.  
  
"I'm helping." Dawn said, putting her foot down.  
  
"I never said you weren't." Buffy told her, never looking up from her book. Dawn's jaw dropped.  
  
"You're gonna let me help?" she exclaimed, at Buffy's nod she squealed and ran around the room.  
  
"Dawn, you're not helping." Buffy told her, handing her sister a book. "And since you do live with a slayer, I suppose you should know what demons I face, although you still aren't patrolling with me."  
  
"Aww, come on!"  
  
"No."  
  
"Please."  
  
"Would the both of you shut up!" Wesley exclaimed and sighed when he noticed the two girls high-fiving each other.  
  
Angel, Fred, Lorne, and Gunn: "Bad Side" of the Town  
  
"Is she always this bossy?" Gunn asked, courious about the little blonde that he had only heard about from "Cordy" and Wesley.  
  
"No." Angel replied, a grin crossing his face, "Usually she's worse."  
  
"I don't ever want to know why you are grinning like that." Fred told him. "Where are we going?"  
  
"To the bad side of town." Angel replied, waiting for the next question.  
  
"And where is that?"  
  
"About a half a block away from the good side of town." Angel said, smiling the first time Cordelia, Xander, and Willow had said it to Buffy. "Where did you met?"  
  
"Behind the Bronze, she swept me off my feet." he said with a small chuckle, Fred smiled getting a romantic look in her eyes.  
  
"Awww."  
  
"Yep, knocked me on my ass." he said and Fred gave him a dirty look. "I was following her to give her some information and she could feel me and she turned into an alley and was up on a pipe when I came around the corner. When I came underneath her, she dropped down, kicking me to the ground. I gave her a "cryptic" warning, a silver cross, and turned around and left."  
  
"What exactly are we looking for?" Gunn asked.  
  
"Anything that looks like remotely what she described from her dream."  
  
"Is she always right?"  
  
"Yes." Angel told them, pain radiating from his body, his mind flashing to her sevententh birthday. Lorne studied him and for once he didn't need Angel to sing in order to read him.  
  
"She thinks it's her fault, even after all these years." Lorne muttered and Angel looked at him sharply. Then he caught a scent, Cordy! And then Angel thought about it, it could be her evil chain and mentally began for the verbal he was going to get when he knocked her unconcious and tied her up.  
  
"This way guys." he led them down an alley and into a warehouse, where there was a Ms. Cordelia Chase, chained and gagged to a chair. Angel began to walk into the room, when he felt them. "You can come out." he said and fifteen vampires dropped around them.  
  
Lorne stepped away quickly, but pulled out a stake, while Gunn, Fred, and Angel began to fight in earnest. Soon, the dust settled and they were the victors. Angel stalked to "Cordy" and looked at her apologetically before knocking her out.. Again.  
  
"Why did you do that?" Gunn asked.  
  
"Just in case she is the demon." he replied, before picking her up and they made their way back to Buffy's house.  
  
Xander, Anya, Willow, and Tara: Docks  
  
"So, why are we at the docks again?" Anya asked again, "I could be at home with Xander, giving him allot of.."  
  
"Orgasms," Willow, Tara, and Anya said together. Anya glared at them when they broke out into a fit of laughter.  
  
"Hey!" Tara said, "I think this is it." they looked at the building and made there way to it.  
  
"Tara, Willow, can you do witchy magic to see if she's in there?" Xander asked, Willow and Tara rolled their eyes, but clasped hands and muttered a few words and the wall became non-existent. "I'll take that as a yes." he said, looking inside of the warehouse. "Ohh, our boy is uglier than Buffy described, and look there's Cordy!" The witches dropped the spell and they began to make a plan.  
  
Willow and Tara stumbled into the warehouse, pretending to be drunk.  
  
"Look at the guy in the costume," Willow said, staggering towards him, "Wonder how big he is." she muttered and prayed to the Goddess that Tara wouldn't blush.  
  
"I've had a guy around his size and he wasn't that well endowed." Tara replied and was mentally blushing like there was no tomorrow. The demon looked at them in confusion trying to figure out what was going on.  
  
"Be gone mortals," he commanded, deeming them not a threat. When Willow and Tara where close enough they clasped hands and looked at him.  
  
"How about no?" Willow said and her and Tara soon had him thrown into a portal to Hell. "One way ticket." she muttered as they closed the portal. She looked over to where Anya and Xander where helping Cordy to her feet.  
  
"We've gotta get to Angel. There's an evil me." she stuttered.  
  
"I always said that." Xander replied and was hit by Cordy. They moved back towards the Buffy's house and met Angel and his crew at the door.  
  
"You got a Cordy too?" Angel quesitoned.  
  
"What one wasn't enough?" Xander asked, looking at the sky, "You have to torment me with two?" Cordy hit him again, "I vote that's the real Cordy, cause she keeps hitting me."  
  
visit my website: www.geocities.com/alwaysanangelgurl 


	13. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I am not Joss or anyone else.. Darn it!  
  
Chapter 12:  
  
"I vote this is Cordy, because she keeps hitting me." Xander said.  
  
"You can't hit Xander. Only I'm supposed to hit Xander and then he tries to get out of the.."  
  
"Anya, honey, remember what we discussed about what goes on in private?" Xander asked, turning a bright shade of red.  
  
"Ewww!" Cordy replied, "I so did not need to know that."  
  
"I second that." Willow said and the others nodded their agreement. They walked into the house, both Cordy's were placed on opposite sides of the rooms, but they were well watched.  
  
"What's the last thing that you remember, Cordy?" Buffy asked, the other Cordy still unconscious.  
  
"Well, Angel gave me a job and I have been working with him and Doyle." she replied, "And I was going out on a date with Doyle when something hit me from behind." looking around the room, she noticed that Doyle was not present there. "Where is he?"  
  
"He died." Angel said, he shifted uncomfortably under her gaze. "He gave his life to save you. He kissed you and you got his visions and then you had to become part demon."  
  
"How do you feel about Angel?" Buffy asked, she knew that the real Cordy wouldn't think of Angel in anyway, except as a brother.  
  
"He's my brother." she replied softly, tears beginning to fall from her eyes. "He's really gone?" she questioned and Angel nodded as the tears began to fall even more. Angel gathered her close as sobs racked her body.  
  
"Isn't that just cute." the demon said, still tied to the chair, turning her attention to Buffy. "If only you hadn't returned from the dead." she began her rant, "It would have been fine. I would have slept with him and then I would have become pregnant and we would have created a life that would dominate the world through happiness." Buffy looked at her and she finally understood why her skin crawled whenever she had been in the room.  
  
"Sorry to disappoint, but it is my job, ya know." Buffy replied, "And now, on with the torture."  
  
"I will tell you nothing."  
  
"Uhh, I hate to be Mr. States-the-obvious, but you just spilled your entire plan." Xander said and the demon looked shocked.  
  
"So, why kill Doyle?" Buffy asked, going with her gut instinct.  
  
"Because I needed to get the visions so that Angel would feel sorry for me and then he would eventually see me as someone he could love." the demon said and smiled as the look of pain flashed across Cordy's face.  
  
"Alright, who are you working for?" Buffy asked and the demon closed her mouth, refusing to say anything. "Alright the hard way."  
  
"Hey, Giles? Wesley?" Buffy called out. "Do we know what kind of demon this thing is?"  
  
"Yea! Dawn found it." Giles replied, "It is a Kar-Val demon. They are shape shifters, they are generally summoned and controlled by one being."  
  
"Uhh, any allergies?"  
  
"Well, it can regenerate from anything, except having it's heart cut out."  
  
"Ohh!" Buffy said, "That sounds like fun, I always wanted to see what made a demon tick." looking at Angel she gave him a look. "Are all those torture tools still at the mansion?" Angel nodded and he and Buffy left the room and made it to the door, before they heard the demon scream the name of the demon that she worked for out.  
  
"Baterated." she said and the two watchers looked at her sharply.  
  
"But he wasn't supposed to rise for another three hundred years." Giles sputtered.  
  
"Oh, please," Anya said, "All demons know that he would rise this year."  
  
"And you didn't think that it would be helpful to tell us this little tidbit?" Giles asked.  
  
"Well, the thought really never crossed my mind."  
  
"Obviously." Wesley replied sarcastically.  
  
"Uhh, for those of us that aren't informed, who is this demon?" Buffy asked. Both watchers scurried into the other room, coming back in moments later with a book.  
  
"He shall rise and the slayer will fall. With her death the world will fall into darkness. For a hundred years darkness will rule. The Hellmouth will open and swallow the world whole."  
  
"Well, it's just a little prophecy, nothing we haven't dealt with before." Buffy said and she could almost feel the glares from the others in the room. "What! It could be worse. It could be another Hell God. So, how do we kill him?" "You can't!" the demon told them and began to cackle.  
  
"Right, that's what they said about Glory and she's of the nonliving." Buffy replied. "Come on, how many times have we heard that and how many times have we kicked ass?" the others began to nod and soon they set about looking for information about the demon.  
  
"Uhh, what are we going to do about her?" Dawn asked, pointing to the demon.  
  
"How about we kill her?" Cordy asked, venom dripping in her voice. Her heart was still breaking at the thought of losing Doyle.  
  
"Now, let's not get too hasty." the demon began, she was almost free, just a few more seconds and she would be free. She finally got the knot undone and she pushed Dawn, and rushed for the door. Cordy punched her, sending her flying back, through the window. Angel went through the window and grabbed the demon, punching his hand through her chest and ripping the heart out. The demon began to dissolve and she laughed, getting her revenge.  
  
"You will all die on Sunday." and the body was gone, nothing was left. Cordy smiled and breathed a sigh of relief, that Doyle's death had been avenged. 


	14. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: I am not Joss or anyone else.. Sorry  
  
Chapter 13  
  
"You will all die on Sunday." the demon proclaimed, before the rest of its body dissolved.  
  
"How unoriginal." Cordy replied, shrugging Cordy turned to face the rest of the group. "So, what's been going on?"  
  
"I died." Buffy said and everyone stepped back as Angel growled. "Shh.." she said, running a calming hand over his face, which immediately calmed him.  
  
"Well, you look pretty spry for a dead slayer." Cordy said and everyone gasped.  
  
"And you say I'm tactless." Anya complained, the rest of the group began to laugh. It was of the good that Cordy was back.  
  
"Who are you?" Cordy asked, turning to Dawn.  
  
"This is Dawn, you know Buffy's sister?" Anya said, explaining it to Cordy as though Cordy was a small child.  
  
"Buffy doesn't have a sister." Cordy stated, confused on how Joyce and Hank could have another child.  
  
"Long story." Willow told her.  
  
"I'm a key and the monks made me out of Buffy and sent me to her." Dawn explained.  
  
"Maybe not so long."  
  
"Oh, and where is Joyce?" Cordy asked, she did notice the wince that was caused by this question.  
  
"She died."  
  
"Oh."  
  
"Hey, umm, not that I mind." Tara began, "But why isn't the demon attacking until Sunday?"  
  
"What?" Gunn asked, turning to look at Tara.  
  
"The other Cordelia said that we would all die on Sunday." Tara explained, "If this demon is so powerful, why is it waiting until Sunday to kill us off. Furthermore, why has it waited to so long to kill any of us?" with these questions raised, the Scoobies turned to look at the watchers.  
  
"What?"  
  
"You're the all knowing ones." Dawn said and Cordy could see what Buffy might have been like if Buffy had never been called as a slayer and in that moment Cordy realized just how much Buffy had needed to give up to be the slayer.  
  
"I think this calls for research." Willow said and the others nodded their agreement.  
  
Later that Night  
  
"Would you tell them already?" Anya asked impatiently. "You said after we defeated Glory you would announce it and that happened."  
  
"Anya, honey, know isn't the time to announce that we are getting married."  
  
"Why not?" Buffy asked, she had come up the stairs to go to sleep. Angel was getting grouchy with her. Every time she went to do something, he would stalk after her. "I think that everyone deserves to know the good news." Anya flashed Xander a triumphant grin and Xander looked at Buffy to make sure that it really was okay.  
  
"Go." Buffy said, "I just want to say congrats and if you need anything, well you know." Xander hugged her and then Anya dragged him down the stairs. Buffy climbed into bed, thinking about everything, she would never admit it, but it hurt, because she couldn't get married to Angel and their baby would be a bastard  
  
Buffy was so lost in her thoughts, she never heard Angel come into the room. She didn't even notice until he got into bed with her and slipped his arms around her waist.  
  
"What's wrong?" Angel asked, he could feel the pain leaking from his mate and he wasn't pleased.  
  
"Nothing," she replied, not looking at him. Angel forced her to look at him and simply waited for her to cave in. "Our baby is going to be a bastard." Angel looked at her in shock; he really didn't know what to say, he hadn't even thought about marriage.  
  
"Ahh, sweetie, don't cry." he told her, gently wiping away her tears, "The claddagh ring was a marriage ring for those that couldn't afford a real one, when I was a child. The ring was presented and then if it was consummated they were considered married." he told her, running a soothing hand over her back.  
  
"Really?" she asked in a little voice, her eyes from where she had been crying.  
  
"Yes, sweetie." he replied, he was mentally going through a list of things he could do to make it actually happen, he could probably get Willow to hack into the databases and create him records so they could get married.  
  
"Go to sleep." he commanded and Buffy snuggled into his embrace, breathing in his scent before falling into a deep sleep.  
  
Next Morning  
  
Angel disentangled himself from Buffy and went down the stairs, making sure to close the door behind him. He knocked lightly on Dawn's door, waking her up to go to school and then going to Tara's and Willow's room, to wake them up.  
  
After knocking on the doors and hearing a sleepy voice and explaining, Angel went down the stairs and into the kitchen, beginning to cook breakfast. Dawn entered first, followed by a sleepy Tara, Willow, Xander, Anya, Giles, Wesley, Fred, and Gunn.  
  
"Where's Lorne?" Angel asked.  
  
"He's with Cordy at the mansion, picking up clothing and stuff." Gunn told him, "And do you want to tell me why you've gotten all of us up at this god forsaken hour?"  
  
"Well, Buffy was talking about something and I'm going to need all of your help, but mostly Willow's." he told them, he was kind of nervous that they would just laugh at him and tell him that a demon can't get married.  
  
"Okay, doing what?"  
  
"I need you to create records for me, birth records, social security number, etc."  
  
"For what?" Xander asked.  
  
"Buffy is upset that our baby will be a bastard, because we aren't married." Angel said, "And I didn't even think about it. She wants to get married and I want to, but I want everything to go smoothly." he told them, "I know that you might not..."  
  
"No, it's cool, we can get it done, but how are you going to plan this without her knowing?" Willow asked.  
  
"Not to be the horrible person, but what about the Demon that wants us dead?" Dawn asked.  
  
"We've got it covered. With the help of Anya we figured out what would kill him and we just have to wait for the right moment and then lop off his head." Wesley and Giles said together, Dawn wincing at the visual description that they had presented. "Sorry. Everything is taken care of, we have nothing to worry about."  
  
"Alright." "So, I would like it if Fred and Dawn could take Buffy shopping, Willow and Tara could fix me up and make me a person, and Gunn and Fred if you find a place for it to happen." Angel delegated the tasks and everyone nodded each going their way. "What about us?" Anya asked.  
  
"Well, I was hoping that you wouldn't mind getting married at the same time." Angel asked, he watched as they looked at each other.  
  
"Sure."  
  
"Good." Angel replied, releasing a breath that he hadn't known he was holding. "So, we need to do invitations or phone calls."  
  
"Phone calls and I need to get a hold of all of the demons." Anya said, mentally going through the list, she left the room beginning the process.  
  
"Angel, how am I going to pay for this?"  
  
"You aren't. I am," he told Xander, he had over the centuries collected enough money for him and his family to live in luxury. Xander looked at Angel, really looked at him and he could finally understand why Buffy was in love with Angel. He hoped that he was the same way with Anya and went off to find her so he could help.  
  
Angel nodded to the two watchers, before climbing back up the stairs to their room, where he climbed back into bed with Buffy, spooning her body against his.  
  
"Where did you go?" she asked, sleepily.  
  
"I made sure Dawn got to school okay."  
  
"Thanks." she told him, before she fell back asleep against his chest. Angel held her in his arms and he again wondered what he had ever done to deserve her love. He fell asleep with his arms wrapped around Buffy possessively. Both lovers finally feeling like they had their own slice of heaven, laying their in each other's arms. 


	15. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: I am not Joss or anyone else.. Sorry  
  
Chapter 14  
  
When we last left Dawn was at school, Xander and Anya were working on the weddings, Willow and Tara where creating a "real" Angel, Cordy, Wesley, and Giles were researching and answering questions, Gunn and Fred were at the mansion with Lorne asleep, Spike was in the basement getting ready to go get Dawn, and our lovers, they were wrapped in each other's arms asleep and feeling as though they had their own slice of heaven. Unfortunately we all know that wouldn't last.  
  
Dawn gave a startled shriek as she was suddenly drug into the basement of her school, by a demon. She had been waiting for Spike, because she wasn't allowed to go anywhere by herself anymore. The demon looked her over, before nodding to itself, offering it's hand to Dawn.  
  
"You.. Come me. Master wants." the demon said.  
  
"Sure, in another lifetime maybe." she said sarcastically, "Buffy told me not to go anywhere with strangers." the demon looked incredibly confused at what was going on. "Where the hell is Spike?"  
  
"You have to go to school." Dawn mimicked as she ducked another swing from the demon in front of her. "Because my school isn't sitting on the mouth of Hell!" the demon was dark green and burly, judging from the speech patterns, it was also stupid and was probably sent by someone or something to take out the slayer's sister or to capture her. While Dawn was contemplating all of this, the demon got a lucky swing in knocking her to the floor.  
  
Dawn struggled to her feet as the demon leaped at her once more, she grabbed the nearest object to her, a chair, and threw it at the demon, momentarily stunning it. Looking around the room, she searched frantically for something that she could use for a weapon, she was the slayer's sister after all. She grinned as she picked up a shovel, swinging it around like she had seen Buffy do and catching the demon off guard.  
  
"Nibblet!" Spike yelled as he entered the basement, watching in awe as she swung the shovel around like she was the slayer. He gave a warning growl when the demon got a good shot in, moving with vampiric speed he grabbed the demon and twisted it's neck. "Are you okay?"  
  
"You're late." she said, hitting him, hard, in the chest.  
  
"Ow." he said rubbing the spot thoughtfully.  
  
House  
  
Dawn launched into her tale, while everyone listened, except for Anya who was currently talking with Hallie who was going to be contacting all of their demon friends.  
  
"I think that Nibblet got more than slayer's nasty temper." Spike said to the two watchers, when Dawn had run upstairs to check on Buffy.  
  
"Oh?" Giles asked, he was very interested in finding everything out about Dawn, because they weren't sure how much of Buffy was in Dawn. Spike nodded wearily and lifted his shirt showing them a horrendous purple and blue bruise, where Dawn had hit him earlier.  
  
"Dawn hit me." he told them and the two watchers glanced at each other sharply.  
  
"This requires research." they said, "But it will have to wait until after will find out about the demon that attacked Dawn." They went upstairs to get Dawn, so that they could get her to look through the books to find the demon. They found her watching Buffy and Angel, standing beside her they waited for her to speak.  
  
"Should we wake them?" Dawn asked the two watchers, standing in the doorway and watching the two lovers sleeping. She was awed at how relaxed the two of them seemed, because they had always seemed so jumpy, especially since they had found out that Buffy was pregnant.  
  
"No." Giles said, "You are okay and the demon didn't do anything. This is the most peaceful that Buffy has slept since she has been back, according to Willow and the rest of you." Wesley nodded, although his main concern was Angel, because the vampire hadn't been the same since Buffy had died. "Besides we still don't know that much about the demon."  
  
"Demon?" Buffy asked sleepily trying to get up only to have Angel let out a warning growl, his arms pulling Buffy back against him, his hand cupping her abdomen protectively.  
  
"Nothing." Dawn said immediately, before she ran for it, leaving the two watchers to the half awake slayer and the growling vampire. They didn't say anything, instead choosing to follow Dawn's lead and beat a hasty retreat, both muttering nothing and glaring at Dawn's retreating form.  
  
"That was rude." she muttered to herself, settling back into Angel's arms, his growling ceasing and turning into purring, placing her head on his chest she let herself fall back asleep.  
  
Downstairs  
  
"We are sure that the demon that tried to take Dawn wasn't working for Baterated?" Cordy asked, everyone looked sharply at one another, this thought clearly hadn't entered their minds.  
  
"It said it wanted to bring me to it's master." Dawn said.  
  
"What else?"Giles asked, whipping his glasses off and cleaning them, while pinching the bridge of his nose.  
  
"Nothing that I understood." Dawn replied, "I'm happy that I understood that, wasn't the most articulate demon ever." she flipped the page as she said each word, frustrated that the watcher's hadn't simply known what type of demon was after her.  
  
"What demon?" Anya asked, walking into the room from the dining room, where she had just finished the list of who was going to be invited and what needed to be done.  
  
"The demon that attacked Dawnie." Xander said, offering his hand he pulled her into his lap and wrapped his arms around her.  
  
"What did it look like?"  
  
"Well, it was dark green, ugly," Dawn said and Anya gave her a look that spoke volumes, "you know, it kind of looked like those minion guys that Glory had. If they had been on steroids." Looking at Giles and Wesley, "Do demons have steroids, cause wouldn't that just be like cheating?"  
  
"Oh!" Anya said, "It's a lower class demon, not too smart if memory serves me."  
  
"Spike killed it." Dawn said, smiling at Spike who gave her a smile back.  
  
"Again, not too smart." Anya replied, "They are bred to serve, well generally, the most feared demons in the land to help advance their destruction of the Earth."  
  
"Hey!" Spike said, "I'll have you know.."  
  
"Children!" Giles said, before anything got out of hand. "Need I remind you that there is a master vampire and slayer sleeping upstairs, both of whom have been sleep deprived and are nervous wrecks?"  
  
"Whose a nervous wreck?" Buffy asked, walking down the stairs and rubbing the sleep from her eyes.  
  
"Dawnie." Xander replied.  
  
"Yes." Dawn said jumping in and glaring at Xander, "I have this huge Biology test tomorrow that the stupid teacher didn't tell me about."  
  
"And why aren't you doing your homework and studying?" Buffy asked in a parental tone.  
  
"And so it starts." Cordy muttered and Buffy looked at her. "What! Everyone else was thinking it. You've got the parental thing going on, soon you will be grounding Dawn and knitting."  
  
"What's wrong with knitting?" Spike asked, "Me mum used to knit."  
  
"I rest my case." Cordy replied, crossing her arms over her chest while Spike looked at her, really looked at her.  
  
"What's the meeting about?" Buffy asked, looking at the assembled Scoobies and AI team, none of whom seemed to meet her eyes, except Giles.  
  
"We were discussing the wedding." Anya said, everyone glaring at her. "My wedding."  
  
"Yes." Fred jumped in, "We thought that we would hold it in the church, as opposed to outside, so in case a vampire or demon wanted to enter."  
  
"Sorry, luv," Spike said, "A vampire can.."  
  
"Can't enter unless it is good." Cordy said, trying to keep Fred and Anya's lies going. Buffy looked at them trying to figure out what was going on and not sure who would be the best person to go after for the information.  
  
"Alright." Buffy said, using her slayer tone, "Who am I going to have to beat to get the information that I want?"  
  
"Well," Giles said, "no one. There isn't anything going on. We were simply discussing weddings."  
  
"Yes," Anya said, "Buffy, how did you plan so quickly for you're last wedding?"  
  
"What last wedding?" Cordy asked, shocked. "When? And why wasn't I invited?"  
  
"Because there wasn't a wedding." Buffy replied, just as confused as everyone else.  
  
"Sure there was." Anya said, "Remember when you were going to marry Spike?"  
  
"You were going to marry Spike?" Angel growled out, as he arrived in the room. Spike retreated, moving towards the exit, only to be blocked by Angel. Dawn stepped in between the two and glared at Angel, daring him to lay a hand on her, for any reason. Angel stepped back, but his gaze promised retribution, before turning his gaze to Buffy who was glaring at the red haired witch.  
  
"I'm so sorry." Willow said, Tara holding her hand and looking slightly confused.  
  
"Why are you sorry?" Fred asked, confused.  
  
"Yea, it wasn't like you used magic." Gunn said and Willow looked a little sheepish at the comment.  
  
"You didn't!" Cordy gasped and looked at Buffy who nodded. "How could you?"  
  
"I didn't mean to!" Willow replied, defending herself.  
  
"Does anyone else feel like they are missing serious back story?" Gunn asked, Lorne, Wesley, Fred, Tara, and Cordy raising their hands.  
  
"Well," Xander began, "we all remember when Oz left Willow?" everyone nodded, "Well, our favorite witch decided to try an I will it spell."  
  
"Let's just say that it didn't go quite as planned, demon magnet." Buffy said, glaring at the laughing boy in front of her, who was attempting to use Anya as a shield.  
  
"Sorry guys." Willow said, "Well, I didn't think it worked, I tried to control a whole bunch of things, but it didn't work. When I said things by accident, like Xander was a demon magnet, they turned them into it. This was the time we were hunting Spike about the Initiative and I accidently said that she should marry him."  
  
"I can't believe you wanted "Wind Beneath My Wings." for.."  
  
"Shut up, Spike." Buffy muttered, flushing when everyone turned their attention to them. "Let me just say, it took a long time to get Spike taste out of my mouth." Angel let out another growl, possessively pulling Buffy to him, his arms wrapped around her from behind.  
  
"Sorry." Willow said again, Tara squeezing her hand to give her support. "So, anywho D'Hoffaryon offered me a job, I didn't accept it and I undid my spell."  
  
"I for one am glad I didn't see it." Giles said, shuddering the remembered sounds, Angel was much preferred.  
  
"Didn't see it? Where you on a vacation?" Wesley asked, confused.  
  
"No." Giles answered, "Willow said that I didn't see anything, so I became blind."  
  
"But hey, at least Xander didn't get the syphilis this time around." Buffy said sweetly, giving her most innocent smile when he glared at her.  
  
"When did you have syphilis, my little dumpling?" Lorne asked.  
  
"Got it from a revenging Native American." Xander supplied.  
  
"For Thanksgiving." Spike said, "If you had kicked the bucket, I'm sure I could drink your blood."  
  
"Still not going to happen, Deadboy Jr." Xander replied, glaring at the younger vampire.  
  
"With blondie pissing off the natives and turning them into bears, I'm sure it will."  
  
"I didn't turn him into a bear!" Buffy mock-shouted, "He did it himself." she settled back against Angel, pouting that she was still being blamed for turning the Native American into a bear.  
  
"I remember that." Cordy said softly, caught up in her own memories of that time when Doyle had been alive, tears slipping down the side of her face.  
  
"Crying for me, princess?" 


	16. Chapter 15

Disclaimer: I am not Joss or anyone else.. Sorry  
  
Chapter 15  
  
"Crying for me, princess?"  
  
"Doyle?" Cordy asked with a tremble in her voice, her head snapping up as tears still trailed from her eyes.  
  
"Last time I checked." he replied and grinned at her, while everyone else shifted closer to a weapon of some sort. Buffy looked at him thoughtfully her senses telling her that he was at least part demon, but not the demon that they were looking for.  
  
"You're part demon." Buffy stated and Doyle turned to look at her.  
  
"Nice to see you again, Buffy." Doyle told her, "And yes, I am still part demon."  
  
"Still getting visions?" Angel asked, not trusting the person standing in front of them, he had watched Doyle die!  
  
"Yes," Doyle said, "after the PTB realized the mistake that had been made, they sent me back. I didn't realize that the Cordy I kissed wasn't the actual Cordy."  
  
"You kissed her!"  
  
"Well, how did you expect me to pass on my powers?" he asked, glad to see that she was indeed jealous, it meant she cared. Cordy looked him over, he looked like the same Doyle that she had known and he seemed the same, looking to Buffy for an answer.  
  
"Don't look at me." Buffy said, "I can tell he's half demon, but he doesn't feel like the demon that's trying to kill us."  
  
"He isn't." Dawn said with finality, startling everyone, who turned to stare at her. "What?"  
  
"We were wondering how you knew that, Nibblet." Spike said, walking towards Dawn.  
  
"I can see him."  
  
"What do you mean you can see him?" Giles asked in confusion.  
  
"Well, I mean, I can see him." she sighed when she realized that no one was getting what she said, except maybe her sister who was looking at her thoughtfully, "Buffy has this light around her that shines so bright, like Faith, except hers wasn't as bright. Angel and Spike have the face of the demon, but they have the light also, like Doyle."  
  
"Why didn't you say anything about the other Cordy?" Gunn asked.  
  
"Because I figured that it was just the type of demon she had been turned into."  
  
"Remarkable." Wesley said, looking at Dawn intently, who began to shift from foot to foot from all the attention that was being paid to her.  
  
"Thank you." Doyle said, he knew that they really had all the right in the world not to trust him and he didn't feel insulted at all.  
  
"Nice to see you again." Buffy said softly, taking Angel's hand and pulling him toward the door while making eye contact with Giles and Xander, who began to pull people from the room, leaving Cordy and Doyle alone.  
  
"How have you been?" she asked softly, insecure as to where she fit into everything, she had missed so much.  
  
"I missed you." Doyle told her, stepping closer and pulling her into his arms, "Every day I was gone, it wasn't Heaven, because you weren't there with me." he bent his head and caught her lips in a sweet kiss meant to reassure and to familiarize themselves again.  
  
"You were in Heaven?" she asked when they had ended the kiss.  
  
"Yes, it hurt watching everything happen and being unable to do anything to stop it. But what hurt the most was that it wasn't you that I kissed when I died, but some demon that had killed me." he told her and part of Cordy melted at his whispered confession.  
  
"It hurt when they told me that you were gone." she confessed, looking him in the eyes, "they never mentioned the kiss though."  
  
"That's my princess." he said with a laugh, before catching her in another kiss.  
  
"Ready to face your friends?" she asked, glowing from the love she was feeling.  
  
"With you?" he asked and she nodded, "Always." they walked into the other room, where everyone was trying not to listen in on the conversation that had been going on.  
  
"How long, Dawn?" Buffy asked and Dawn shifted from foot to foot.  
  
"About a week or two." she replied, finding her shoes more interesting then looking at the condemnation in her sister's eyes.  
  
"Oh. When where you going to tell me?" she asked, wondering how her sister would think that she wouldn't care about something like that.  
  
"When you were better."  
  
"Dawn," Buffy began and then sighed when the younger girl braced herself. Moving forward, she dragged Dawn into her arms, "it's just you're my sister and I can help, you know? I love you."  
  
"I love you too." Dawn said, pulling Buffy closer and hugging her tighter, "But with you coming back from the dead and the baby and everything, I didn't want to add to your burden."  
  
"Dawn, you aren't a burden. You're my sister." Buffy told her, "Granted you can be annoying, but that's what little sisters do." looking at Wesley and Giles, "Can you guys find out about the next slayer?"  
  
"Yes." Giles answered, going into the other room and picking up the phone.  
  
"I don't understand." Fred said, "If you're here alive and well and Faith is in jail, how would another slayer be called?"  
  
"She died again." Tara said.  
  
"But the slayer line stopped going through her when she died the first time." Wesley said and everyone looked at him to continue, "When Buffy was drowned she should have died, but instead she was brought back. She died long enough for another slayer to be called, but because she had died, the slayer line went onto Kendra and then onto Faith."  
  
"Yes." Giles said stepping back into the room, "It seems that Faith died about two weeks ago."  
  
"Why wasn't I notified?" Angel asked, "I was supposed to be called if anything happened."  
  
"Because you've been down here, they have been unable to reach you." Giles said.  
  
"So," Buffy said, "Dawn has become the next slayer?"  
  
"They aren't sure. They have no idea if the next slayer has been called or not, as far as they can tell, there hasn't been one called."  
  
"How can they not be sure?" Anya asked, "You guys have all of those mages and stuff."  
  
"It isn't that simple." Giles told them, "Because she is the key, we can't tell if she has the slayer essence in her. But judging by the power she has in her and her new ability coinciding with Faith's death and who she was made of, I would assume that she was indeed the next slayer."  
  
"Cool." Dawn said, "Does that mean Giles is gonna be my watcher, too?"  
  
"Yes, they asked me to watch over you." Giles said, taking his glasses off and cleaning them as everyone turned to look at Buffy, who was still hugging Dawn.  
  
"You'll do great." Buffy said confidently. "Besides, Wesley will keep you in check." "I may not be there." Wesley reminded her gently and Buffy just gave him a look that spoke volumes.  
  
"Are you leaving Angel's Investigation?" Buffy asked and Wesley shook his head in denial. "There you go. Dawn will get two watchers."  
  
"When do I start training?" Dawn asked in excitement.  
  
"Why couldn't you be more like her when I first met you?" Giles asked in amusement.  
  
"Cause I wasn't involved with slayers on a daily basis," Buffy replied giving her best mock pout, "and I wasn't created out of a slayer."  
  
"Yes, well there is that, I suppose." Giles replied.  
  
"And why is that?" Buffy asked.  
  
"Well, sweet pea," Lorne said taking over for the two flustered watchers who had no idea how to answer, "no one is sure exactly what makes one girl more susceptible to being the slayer than another girl, but because you were the slayer when they created Dawn, it makes sense that she would be the next slayer called."  
  
"Not that I'm not all happy for this," Fred said looking at Dawn, "but what happened to Faith?" everyone turned to Giles who looked very unsure of the answer himself.  
  
"I've got a question," Gunn said, "would the watcher's council kill Faith off in order to call the next slayer?"  
  
"Possibly," Wesley answered, when Giles was unwilling to do so. "I doubt that they would, but they could very well."  
  
"Especially after they heard about Buffy's death." Giles said.  
  
"Ya, cause we all know how much they cared for me." Buffy muttered darkly, "If they come near Dawn.."  
  
"I am sure that they are well aware of the risks." Angel said soothingly, bringing her back into his arms and rubbing her back soothingly.  
  
"Oui, I've got a question." Spike said and everyone looked at him, "what did the demon look like again?"  
  
"Big, ugly, blue, why?" Dawn asked.  
  
"Because he's standing right behind you!" Spike replied and everyone turned, jumping to the side when the demon threw a fire ball at them.  
  
"How do we kill him?" Cordy asked, looking around the room at the scattered group who had taken cover behind different objects. Everyone looked at one another, unsure of what would be the correct answer.  
  
"Well, he wasn't supposed to be able to attack until Sunday." Giles reminded them, "we need the blood of the slayer to kill him."  
  
"Which one?" Anya asked.  
  
"Me." Dawn said and continued when Buffy went to speak, "you're pregnant so Angel would never let you bleed on anyone, except maybe him." Angel nodded and Buffy did slowly, knowing that she coudln't protect Dawnie anymore, because she had become the slayer. Dawn reached up into one of the drawers and pulled out a long butcher knife, just as another fireball hit the space directly behind her head. Muttering to herself she cut into her skin a hiss of pain following, and then stood, the demon turning his attention to her.  
  
"Slayer."  
  
"Present." Buffy said and the demon looked at her in confusion, giving Dawn enough time to take advantage and throw the butcher's knife as he released a fireball. Dawn went down with a scream of pain as the fireball singed her skin, but she gave a quick grin as she watched the demon clutch the knife in his chest, before dissolving.  
  
"Dawnie!" Buffy screamed out, getting to her feet and rushing to her side, only to be beat by Spike, who gave a warning growl when Buffy got too near. Buffy pulled back in shock of the growl and watched as Spike tenderly probed the area around the wound and then picked her up in his arms, before whisking her down stairs to his room. "Why?"  
  
"He's a vampire sweety." Angel reminded her gently, restraining her from going down the stairs, "he has claimed her I would guess."  
  
"But.."  
  
"I think it's because she was called as the slayer that he stepped in and claimed her."  
  
"But he can't do that." she said in confusion, looking to Giles and Wesley for help.  
  
"Well, actually he can." Giles replied, "It doesn't happen often, if at all in this day and age, but they can do it."  
  
"But why Dawn?" 


	17. Chapter 16

Disclaimer: I am not Joss or anyone else.. Sorry  
  
Chapter 16  
  
As the discussion raged about what Spike and Dawn had done or hadn't done yet, no one noticed the blue goo on the floor starting to reform its shape. The goo turning into a solid mass, forming many tiny pieces that were slowly welding together forming the major parts of the demon, moving towards each other as it tried to reform. The demon regenerating and knitting itself back together, as the Scooby gang and AI teams argued about the best possible way to approach Spike and Dawn.  
  
"Why Dawn?" Buffy asked, her voice betraying her concern for her sister and the relationship that she may have started with a vampire and not just any vampire, but one that had up until that moment, thought to be in love with Buffy. Buffy realized that she was being hypocritical, but she wanted Dawn to be able to have the normal life, everything that she hadn't had, everything she had had to give up because she had become the slayer. Sighing, Buffy realized that she could just throw those dreams right out the window, much like Angel had when she had returned from Hell. Dawn had become what Buffy feared she would, ever since she had found out that she had become the slayer or rather a slayer. Buffy sighed in defeat, her sister had been so afraid that she would stop loving her, that she had not informed Buffy about the change, until Buffy had seen the evidence for herself and she couldn't keep it quiet anymore.  
  
"I didn't claim Dawn." Spike replied, coming back up the stairs. He had heard the entire argument and him and the Bit had, had a good laugh at their expense. Spike smiled, it had been a while since he had heard the Bit laugh and it was a good sound to hear, but what he wanted was to hear Buffy laugh again, not a brittle forced laugh, but an honest to goodness laugh. The gang turned to watch the vampire, warily, as he climbed the stairs. "I reacted badly, actually." Buffy raised her eyebrow and Spike had the grace to look shamed, before looking at Buffy defiantly, like he was daring her to claim Dawn in some way.  
  
"Why?" Buffy asked the question that was on everyone's mind and amazingly no one had questioned yet, everyone was too caught up in the non-verbal by- play that was taking place.  
  
"Yes," Anya said, "why did you whisk Dawn off to the basement, alone? Do you like to play games, too? There's this one game that Xander and I like to play where I'm a nurse and he's the patient and.."  
  
"Anya!" Buffy said sharply, making sure that the ex-demon didn't go further, she really hadn't wanted to hear it. "Can you say over share much?" Everyone raised their hand; Buffy smiled at the picture that they made and that her family had finally come together, before returning her glare to the former demon, who had no idea why she was being reprimanded. "Back to the original question. Why?"  
  
"Because," Dawn said as she came back up the stairs in one of Spike's shirts, "of who my father is." Everyone stared for a moment, before breaking into speech at the same time, Spike and Dawn looking highly amused, the room filled with loud, repetitive questions that were not being answered.  
  
"Uhmm.. Here's a thought." Buffy said, holding her hand up to get everyone to quiet down, before continuing when everyone had quieted down enough. "How do you have a father? I thought you were created out of me."  
  
"I am." Dawn replied, not very forth coming with any information, almost like she was deliberately trying to be as vague as possible. Buffy sighed, thinking that it would be easier to get a tooth pulled then getting information out of her sister and for some reason, Spike thought this was all hilarious.  
  
"Then how do you have a father?" Buffy snapped, tired and cranky, but more concerned about the welfare of her sister. Buffy was also relieved that Dawn wasn't involved with Spike, but at the same time she almost wished she were, because it would certainly be easier than trying to figure out who the father was.  
  
"Unless there is something you aren't telling us?" Cordy asked, her question directed at Buffy who was looking quite pale, from all of the information that she had received recently. Buffy glared at Cordy telling her that she could not think of anyone that she had sex with that could possibly be Dawn's father.  
  
"Who did you have sex with?" Anya asked and everyone turned to her sharply, "What? It's not like you weren't thinking it."  
  
"We may have been, but we have enough tack not to say anything." Cordy replied. Willow and Xander attempted to stifle their laughter at the memories of Cordy and her lack of tact. "What? Is there something in my hair?" Doyle let out a shout of laughter, before setting about reassuring Cordy that there wasn't anything in her hair, even as he continued to laugh.  
  
"Back to the matter at hand." Buffy said, "what father? And no I didn't have sex with anyone. Unless you're Riley's, which would be just impossible." Dawn shifted from foot to foot and everyone wasn't sure if that was an agreement or not.  
  
"You poor thing." Anya said and for once no one disagreed with you, "no wonder you are the way you are."  
  
"Anya!" Dawn said, breaking into a fit of laughter. "Nothing like that." Dawn reassured her sister, who gave a sigh of relief, because she really didn't want to give Riley a call and explain about Dawn. "But you didn't really think that they could create me just out of you, did you?"  
  
"So, then whose you're father?" Giles asked in exasperation, Spike and Dawn where having way too much fun jerking everyone around and drawing it out as much as possible. Dawn gave a little smile to the ex-watcher, who took his glasses off and began to clean them.  
  
"Question." Lorne said, watching Dawnie, who was walking around fine, after the fireball that had hit her. "Where's the wound?" Buffy snapped her attention back to Dawn, walking over to her sister and jerking her shirt to the side, ignoring the growl that emanated from Spike, with a glare of her own. Spike stopped growling, but didn't move back and changed into game face, until Angel stepped forward and let a growl of his own out, glaring at his impudent childe. Fred watching with avid interest at the by-play and wondering if Dawn would let her look at her blood, to see how she managed to heal so quickly.  
  
"Bout bloody time." Spike muttered, stepping back with a small bow to show that Angel was indeed correct. Buffy jerked her head up from inspecting the wounds that were quickly healing on Dawn, looking at Dawn to Angel and then back to Dawn.  
  
"Angel?" she asked hesitantly and Dawn gave a squeal, rushing forward and hugging her sister. She stepped back and looked at her watch and then looked at Spike with a look that was pure Buffy.  
  
"I won!" she announced and Spike looked like a sullen child who had lost his favorite toy, pulling out a twenty and placing it into Dawn's up turned hand. Buffy looked at Dawn for an explanation.  
  
"We had a bet." she replied. "I said that Angel and you would figure it all out on your own and Spike bet that you guys would have to be told." Dawn stuck her tongue out at Spike, grinning like a fool who had won a million dollars.  
  
"Alright, so dead boy is the proud papa?" Xander muttered and everyone turned to Dawn who was nodding like crazy. "How is that possible?"  
  
"I'm not sure." Giles said a bit flustered about the entire thing, "a vampire cannot have children."  
  
"Sure they can," Dawn replied. "They can have all the children they want, with a little help from the monks anyways." She looked around the room and sighed heavily as the looks around the room were of disbelief, except for Angel and Buffy, "Why is that you guys readily accept me as Buffy's, but you have the hardest time accepting me as Angel's?"  
  
"Still not over the vampire concept." Cordy replied and everyone nodded his or her head, except for Buffy and Angel who were still busy staring at each other huge smiles on their faces. "And they are already making with the googily eyes."  
  
"Well, sorry if I just found out that I'm suddenly a father." Angel muttered turning to look at Cordy."  
  
"You aren't suddenly a father." Buffy muttered, motioning to her ever- expanding belly. Angel stared at her gently rounded belly, quite noticeable, and then at Dawn, then back to Buffy, before swearing in Gaelic.  
  
"But I'm a vampire." he muttered weakly, looking at Buffy for help, who laughed at him and patted him on the shoulder, "How?"  
  
"Welcome to my world." Buffy replied thinking over everything, before her head snapped up and looking at Spike with a question in her eyes, "How did you know?"  
  
"Vampire, pet." Spike replied and he got even more confused looks, sighing he explained further, "I can smell him on her. I smell Peaches and you." he nodded to Buffy.  
  
"That's so gross. Have I ever mentioned how gross that is before?" she asked, wrinkling her nose and looking to Angel, smacking him "How come you never noticed?" Everyone looked at Angel, interested to know what his answer was, shrugging Angel looked a bit sheepish.  
  
"Come on, Mr. Private Investigator." Xander said, loving every minute of teasing the life, or un-life in this case, out of Angel.  
  
"I was preoccupied with other things." Angel said in defense of himself looking at Buffy, everyone laughing at the shocked look on the vampire's face. "But I'm a vampire."  
  
"With a soul! That has already got me from pregnant by the Day that Wasn't." Buffy said, playfully hitting him on the arm, Angel went to mock protest, "Besides, weren't you the one that gave up the Day that Wasn't?" Everyone on the AI team froze, staring at the slayer in shock that not only had she remembered, but she was joking about it too, and she wasn't slaying either. The Scooby gang looked around the room in confusion, looking for someone to fill in the pieces.  
  
"Didn't you mention something about a day that wasn't earlier? A little back story, please." Willow asked looking at her friend who had been so recently returned to them.  
  
"Well," Buffy said mock glaring at the vampire at her side, who gave her a little smile, making her laugh. "Remember when I went to go see him on Thanksgiving?" the Scooby Gang gave a nod, the AI team entranced also, because they had only heard second-hand information, nothing from Angel or Buffy, who wasn't supposed to remember. "Well, short handed verison is where we were talking, a Mohara demon came charging into the office, we fought it and Angel got cut and some of his blood mixed with the Mohara's. Because they have regenerative powers, it brought him to live. We decided to take things slowly," the two shared a look and Lorne coughed waiting for the rest of the story, "you know how that would go. We made love. He decided to go save the world, without waking me up, I went to go find him and got hurt. He went to the oracles, trading the day back in return for my life." Buffy finished off, leaving the room spinning in silence. Cordy and Doyle realized how much they had given up, but they were amazed at how the two were still fighting for the cause, after all of this. "Where you created from this day also?"  
  
"No." Dawn replied, "the monks only needed a sample of Angel to help create me."  
  
"But why implant memories of you in all of us and then tell me about you, but say nothing about Angel?" Buffy asked in confusion, Dawn shrugged, she wasn't quite sure what the monks had hoped to accomplish by this.  
  
"What if they weren't sure if you were going to get back together?" Willow said and Fred nodded her head in agreement.  
  
"They must have realized that by combining the slayer and a master vampire, that they would create a being more likely to be called as a slayer and therefore more readily able to defend herself." Fred said, everyone peering at Dawn who was getting quite nervous from all of the attention.  
  
"Right." Willow said, "I wonder if her being the Key has affected her body's adaptation to becoming the slayer or if it was her being the Key that called the slayer essence to her in the first place." Willow and Fred eyed Dawn thoughtfully, wondering how much research they would be able to get away with before either Dawn or Buffy put a stop to it.  
  
"Remember the demon?" Cordy asked before the conversation could go any further while backing away from the rest of the group, her eyes fixed firmly behind them making everyone whirl around to see the demon rushing towards them.  
  
"I thought it was killed with slayer's blood." Buffy said in a panicked voice to her mentor.  
  
"Are we sure Dawn is the slayer?" Anya asked and Cordy resisted the urge to roll her eyes, while Fred began to spout out the reasons that it was likely that Dawn was indeed the slayer.  
  
"Anya," Wesley said, "you said the demon could be killed with slayer's blood."  
  
"No I didn't." she protested, "I said you had to cut it's head off on a certain day." she replied, wondering how she always managed to get blamed for everything. Everyone turned and looked at her in shock.  
  
"And you didn't mention this before when we thought we had killed it?" Wesley asked, as the demon stalked closer, Buffy reaching the weapons chest and throwing various weapons to everyone. Dawn getting a sword, while Angel got an axe.  
  
"You didn't ask." Anya replied as she caught the sword that Buffy had thrown, seconds before it would have hit Xander on the head.  
  
"Thanks." he said in surprise as he stared at the sword inches from his head.  
  
"No problem," she replied, handing him the sword and looking quite bored, already.  
  
"And when can will kill it?" Buffy asked in exasperation, as Angel tackled her, gently, out of the way of a fireball.  
  
"You can't kill me." the demon said, laughing darkly, moving towards the pregnant slayer, Dawn stood up behind him swinging the sword above her head.  
  
"Dawnie!" Anya screamed alerting the demon to the presence of the other slayer behind him. Whirling around, he caught Dawn's wrist in his hand, pushing it back and sending her sprawling on the floor, while advancing on her.  
  
"What, Anya?" Dawn snapped as she scrambled backwards trying to avoid the demon that was making it's way towards her. She kicked the demon in the stomach, making it bend over in pain, before sending a kick to the side of it's head and watching it going flying into the couch, breaking it.  
  
"It's okay," Buffy said sarcastically, "I wanted new furniture." she watched her sister fight the demon with worry written all over her face, Buffy now understood how her mother felt watching her fight or watching her leave to go off and fight.  
  
Gunn decided that Dawn was having all of the fun and rushed the demon, axe swinging in front of him, taking part of the demon's arm off. Letting a roar of pain out, the demon turned to Gunn, swiping at him with his hand, like one would a fly or knat, hitting him and sending him flying into the wall. Gunn felt the pain course through his body as he slid down the wall, Fred rushing to his side, making sure that he wasn't seriously injured.  
  
"You can't kill him yet." Anya said, watching as the younger Summers' sister took on the demon that out weighed her by one hundred pounds and more. Dawn moved with a grace that would have awed anyone that didn't realize she was the slayer. She fought from the heart, like her sister, and gave her all to the battle on hand, focusing on the now instead of the bigger picture. Dawn ducked and teased the demon, kicking him on the ass and sending him sprawling into furniture as he tried to kill all of them off, Dawn waiting for the word from Anya to say it was okay to kill him. She watched as he created a fireball and dodged it at the last second, wincing at the memory of the last fireball that she had taken and was very grateful for the healing power that she seemed to possess. She shook her head and brought herself back to the present as the demon prepared to send a fireball at her, while rushing her at the same time.  
  
"Now!" Anya screamed looking at the clock on the wall, hoping that she remembered the time correctly or they would facing the demon again in a few minutes and would be unable to kill it for another hundred years or so, because the time would have past. "Dawn! Kill it now!" Dawn brought the sword whirling around her head and through the neck of the demon in front of her, just as it released another fireball. Dawn gave a scream of pain as the fireball tore into her skin, once again, before falling to the floor, Buffy and Angel rushing to her side.  
  
"You would think I would learn to duck." Dawn muttered as she looked at the wound that had been inflicted upon her, once again.  
  
"Or at least move out of the way." Buffy said, gently prodding the area around the singed skin, while Dawn hissed at her in pain, glaring at her older sister who was doing her best to make it as non- painful as possible. "Wuss." she said gently and then looked up at Dawn with the sudden realization that she wouldn't be able to protect her forever, not that she thought she would be able to, "if you die, I'm telling." Dawn glared at her, before the two of them broke out in grins, the AI and Scooby Gangs exchanging confused looks, before settling on Willow and Xander, who were looking as confused as everyone else.  
  
"Don't look at me," Xander said looking to Willow for help, who simply shrugged and left Xander to the explanations, "it's a Summers thing, it's all very violent." Dawn and Buffy grinned even more, looking at each other, before launching themselves at Xander and beginning to tickle him. Willow took one look at them and then joined in, while the group looked on in confusion. "No fair ganging up no me."  
  
"All's fair," Buffy began.  
  
"In love and war." Willow finished for her.  
  
"Or on the Hellmouth." Dawn said and the three girls giggled like crazy, before tickling Xander even more.  
  
"Children," Giles said and everyone stopped, "could we get back to the present?" he looked pointedly at the demon that lay dead on the ground, while it's head was rolling on the carpet. Sighing, Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Dawn climbed to their feet shooting the watcher pouts, before settling back into their seats, or rather what was left of their seats from the fight that had just taken place there.  
  
"What?" Dawn sighed in a way that was so Buffy, that everyone looked to the slayer.  
  
"What?" Buffy asked when their gazes settled on her, instead of answering her, they began to laugh. "So, demon dead, I say we party."  
  
"How can you be so sure the demon is dead?" Giles asked, pinching his nose in a very Gilesy way, making Buffy smile.  
  
"Cause last time it turned into goo and now it's body is laying in my livingroom." Buffy paused and looked at the demon on the ground before sighing and looking at Giles, "Think the watcher council would invest in a cleaning service?" Giles looked at her laughing, until he realized that she was serious.  
  
"Buffy, I doubt the council would bring in a cleaning service."  
  
"Why not?" Dawn asked with a pout, "it's our home that the demons keep destroying."  
  
"That's right." Buffy replied and both watchers eyed them exasperation written on their faces.  
  
"Great there's two." Giles said finally and Buffy gave him a mock pout before breaking out with a grin.  
  
"Two is better than one." Dawn said and everyone started to laugh.  
  
"So," Spike said, "What are we doing with O'headless one?"  
  
"Since you asked," Angel said, an evil glint in his eyes, "you can have pick up duty." Spike glared at his sire, who had the biggest grin on his face.  
  
"Why, then I guess that means you get to help," Willow said, grinning evilly at Angel, "since you volunteered Spike." Angel looked about ready to retort until he realized that Willow had "resolve face" on. Sighing he walked over to where Spike was and began to help him remove it, Buffy could hear him muttering under his breath about the unfairness of "resolve face."  
  
"So," Fred said as the last of the demon's remains where dragged from the house, "How fast do you heal?" looking at Dawn, who squirmed under all of the attention being given to her.  
  
"Fast enough." she muttered, gasping as Buffy went over and removed the bandages, the wounds already beginning to heal. "Fine, really fast." Fred and Willow looked at her interestingly, both of them going into scientific mode, as Dawn described the sensations that she would feel as her body started healing.  
  
Looking around the room, Buffy realized that everyone was wrapped up on getting acquainted with each other, leaving Angel and her to find their own fun. Taking his hand she dragged him towards the door, not that Angel was complaining, if anything he was rushing her to move faster. Stifling her giggle as they crept up the stairs, Buffy opened her door quietly and shut it just as quietly, locking the door behind them, before turning and smiling at Angel.  
  
Angel groaned at the heated look in her eyes, it was a look that he had seen a thousand times before on the day that wasn't, a look that promised sensual pleasure. Groaning as she licked her lips, Angel gave himself up to the pleasure that was in her kiss, her every touch. Sliding his hands upwards, he cupped her breasts, gently kneading the soft weight of her, brushing his thumbs over her nipples. The passion raged through them, burning, looking for a way to escape, before exploding, sending them flying into rapture.  
  
Downstairs  
  
"Where's Buffy and Angel?" Dawn asked, looking around the room and noticing that the two had disappeared at some point. Everyone looked around, shrugging, everyone knew what was going on, but no one wanted to mention it out loud.  
  
"Do you think they're playing the game with the silk.." Xander clapped a hand over her mouth, before anything else could be said.  
  
"Anya!" 


	18. Chapter 17

Disclaimer: I am not Joss or anyone else.. Just lil' ol' me.

Author's Note: Sorry about this taking so long to update, but as you can see I have! Finally! Let's see, I have a new beta! And I'm so excited about this! I wanna thank her for doing this! So.. thanks Buffy2theSlayer! Thank you! Thank you! THANK YOU!

So.. I wanted to update this the other day, but Kate (my car, named after Kate in the 'Taming of the Shrew') decided that the transmission in a car was unimportant and that I didn't need it. By the way the car is an automatic, figure that one out! So I threatened her with a tow truck and a moose! She got me home and that's what counts.. lol

Chapter 17

Angel was the first to wake the following morning, he felt more content then he had in a while and he wanted nothing more than to stay with his arms wrapped around Buffy, but he could hear the house awakening around him. He could hear the people slow down outside of their door and he realized with a start, that they needed to get a place of their own or a bigger place, so that he could sleep all day with his mate or he would be a very cranky vampire. Pulling her closer, he buried his face in her neck and breathed her scent in, loving the way she smelled. He loved the way she looked in the morning, he could watch her all day and he had. Shifting up on to his elbow, he watched her awaken, wondering if he would ever get used to seeing her like this in the morning light.

Buffy woke shortly after Angel, studying him as he contemplating something and it was entirely too early to be that deep in thought. She wasn't sure what was going on in his head, but he got this cute little burrow when he was thinking hard, right between his eyes, which would always take on this far away look, as though he weren't in the room with her. She stroked the side of his face lovingly, without even realizing what she was doing, bringing Angel's full attention to her, his eyes lighting up when he realized she had woken up without him realizing it. He leaned down and gave her a lingering kiss, which she returned full heartedly, opening her mouth under his and allowing him a deeper entry, a deeper connection.

"Good morning." He said softly, as though they were the only two in the world, even though they could both hear everyone in the house moving about. One of the many things that super natural powers brought, enhanced hearing. They could hear Dawn and Spike talking heatedly in the kitchen, while Cordy and Doyle were reaffirming their relationship in the bathroom. Xander and Anya were at the door, Giles and Wesley were discussing the various demons that they had encountered, Lorne, Fred, and Gunn were listening to all the conversations trying to figure everything out and how they fit into it all. Willow and Tara were in their room, discussing various spells, in between kisses, of course.

"Morning." She replied, leaning up and kissing him again sending his world back into motion with a single kiss, "Remind me not to use the bathroom until it's been disinfected." Angel gave a small laugh at this response, nodding his head in agreement. She shifted on the bed trying to get off**, ****but entice him to follow her at the same time, falling off as she attempted**, "we need to get a new bed." Angel was beside her in a flash, making sure that she was okay and that no serious harm or anything had come to her or their child.

"I'm okay." She assured him, as she sat up, "a small bruised ego, but nothing that can't be fixed." Angel's anxiety leaked out of him and he took a look around the room, adjusting everything and trying to fit in a new bed. Everything he was trying was not working, until he realized that he had a possible solution, if Buffy was willing.

"Yea," Angel replied helping Buffy to her feet after reassuring himself that she was okay to get up, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth at the sight of her, "a bigger bed." Angel wanted to be sure that there would be enough room for the two of them and being a vampire, he was used to a certain amount of space. He also wanted to be sure that Buffy had everything that she could possibly need during her pregnancy. Shaking his head, he brought himself back to the conversation at hand and a way to bring up moving to Buffy, without her crying. This was an extremely difficult task, now that she was pregnant, just about everything made her cry and it didn't matter if it was a happy cry or a sad cry, because each tear tore at his heart.

"Can't get much bigger," Buffy replied, eyeing the tiny space that they had never noticing the calculating look that was in Angel's eyes, "it would never fit in the room." Buffy studied the room that she had, had since she had moved to Sunnydale and so many memories flashed through her mind, the good along with the bad. She remembered the first time that she kissed Angel and smile tugged on lips. She also remembered the heart ache that was brought when Angel became Angelus and her mom died. After her mom died, Buffy just couldn't bring herself to change anything in the house, including her room, every little thing was an intact part of her past, a tie that connected her to her mother, and after she died, the gang refused to change anything about her room.

"Then we'll just have to get a new room." He replied and tears began to form around Buffy's eyes. Angel reached up and brushed the tears away with his fingertips, before leaning down and kissing her gently, "With a wardrobe large enough for the two of us and some mirrors for you." A soft smile graced her face as the tears slowly began to fall; Angel caught each one, stroking the side of her face softly, "I was paying attention, I just wasn't ready yet." He caught her in a tight hug, murmuring soft words of love, as her tears wet his shirt. He tried to calm her enough so that she wasn't crying, but she cried for a while longer, the two of them entwined in the middle of her bedroom, light and shadow as the morning light filtered in through the windows surrounding them.

"And you are now?" she asked when she was finally able to speak, her voice hitching, because she was still waiting for the other shoe to drop, for Angel to tell her he was leaving and he wasn't sure where he was going yet. She still was hurt when he had left her without any indication of where he was going or calling when he finally found a destination. She was hurt that he had made more decisions for the two of them without ever consulting her. She knew that they had talked things through and this was a sure indication that he had been listening, but somewhere in the back of her mind, Buffy was thinking that he would leave her, it was only a matter of time.

"I'm very sure." He replied catching her in another kiss, this one meant to soothe her fears away. Angel knew, partially, of what was running through her mind and he knew that only time, with him in her life, would soothe away her fears, well that and constant reassurance that he wasn't going to leave her, "I thought we could move into the mansion. There's a lot more space and everyone can have their own room, so no more sleeping on the couches and floor."

"What about vampires?" Buffy asked, her voice partially muffled, because her head was buried in his shirt, her arms tightly wrapped around him hold him to her, as though he wanted to be anywhere else.

"Well," Angel said, "I thought that if I signed it over to you, then it would be your residence, so there would be a living person living there," Buffy nodded slowly, questioning whether this would work or not and deciding that she would ask Giles, he would know. She wasn't sure how she felt about having Angel sign something worth so much over to her, but shrugged it off it would be for the baby and the group after all, "So Spike and I would need to be invited in, of course." Buffy nodded once again, accepting the answer, still surprised that he was getting along with his childe so well. But considering Spike wasn't after his daughter and had been talked to about his mate, everything was going smoother so far.

"My mother told me not to invite strangers into my house though." Buffy said in a little school girl voice as she looked up at Angel, her green eyes alight in mischief.

"How can I convice you that I'm not a stranger?" Angel asked his voice low and husky and his eyes darkening as lust swept through his body, sending shivers down Buffy's spin.

"I think a kiss should do it." Buffy said and Angel leaned down, quickly kissing her on the mouth. "I think you can do better."

"I can?" Angel asked innocently, "Why don't you show me?" Buffy caught the challenge in his voice and laughed, they had never been able to do the teasing thing. When they had first started their relationship everything was too new and rushed and then after the entire Angelus fiasco everything was try not to think about sex.

"Gladly," Buffy responded pulling his head down to hers and capturing his lips. She allowed him to tease her for a minute or two, before she parted her lips, her tongue tracing the seam of his mouth. Angel parted his lips and allowed her entry both of them groaning as she boldly entered his mouth, her tongue exploring every texture that she found.

Angel let her lead the kiss for a while, teasing their senses, until he couldn't take it anymore. He took control of the kiss, deepening and pulling her closer, his hand slipping beneath her top and skimming the silky skin that he found beneath it. He let a moan out as she did the same for him, exploring the hard planes of his chest, her fingers plucking at his nipples. Bent on returning the favor, Angel slanted his head so that he could get an ever deeper kiss, as his hands cupped both of her breasts, her hard nipples aching more under the contact. Hearing a crash sounding from the kitchen the couple sprang apart both breathing heavily as they looked at each other and sighed, their moment had been interrupted, but there would be more. From the sounds of the argument that was going on, a little intervention would be needed

Kitchen

"You can't have sex in public places!" Dawn muttered as Cordy and Doyle came down the stairs with a satisfied smile on their faces leaving no doubt on anyone's mind what they had been up to, not that there had been any doubt. Dawn and Spike had stopped fighting as they heard Cordy and Doyle start down the stairs. It wasn't as though they were having a lover's quarrel or anything like that, but it was more of who was right. They had been arguing about the prophecy concerning Buffy and her child, both had read separate prophecies out of the different books, speaking of the vampire with a soul and his child and what said child would do for the world. Dawn brought herself back to the present when Spike gave a muffled laugh as Cordy and Doyle turned bright red, they hadn't thought that they were being as loud as they apparently were, forgetting that almost everyone had supernatural hearing or where right down the hall from the bathroom.

"Well you can, but you should be quieter." Anya replied, not even looking up from the bowl of cereal that she was eating at the moment. Xander spit up the coffee he had been drinking, flushing bright red, as everyone turned their attention to Xander and Anya, trying to figure out where they had sex and wondering if they really wanted to know. For the most part the group decided that they did not want to know where those two had sex, but the others wanted to know so that they could stay out of the rooms or disinfect them.

_'The better question is where they haven't had sex.'_ Buffy thought with a snort, looking at Angel who was apparently thinking the same thing judging by the smile on his face. They wondered if they could sneak back to their room without being noticed and pick up where they had left off.

"And you woke up Angel and Buffy, too." Spike said, a small smirk hidden behind the coffee mug that he was lifting to his mouth, knowing that he was the only one to hear them come in and it looked like they were about to leave anyways. Everyone turned to watch Buffy and Angel enter the room, various greetings being made.

"Good morning." Angel and Buffy replied together.

"Who wants pancakes?" Angel asked looking around at the large group assembled in the tiny kitchen.

"Depends," Cordy replied, her embarrassment forgotten for the moment, "whose making them?"

"Me." Angel replied and there was a chorus of "yes's" from the group. Angel smiled as he set about making breakfast, not really listening to the conversations going on around him, but knowing that his team and the Scooby gang were hitting it off. Various discussions where being made, best stories where swapped, what weapon should be used when killing what demon, and the watcher's where talking adamantly about various demons. This might seem strange anywhere else, but Angel could get used to it, his entire family was assembled and everyone was getting along he wouldn't ask for more.

Later: Kitchen

"So," Buffy began nervously as breakfast began to wind down, Angel clasped her hand, trying to comfort her as everyone's attention focused on the two of them the idle chattering dying out, "We have something to tell you."

"You're pregnant!" Anya shouted, giving a squeal of delight about to rush forward and give Buffy a congratulatory hug. Buffy gave her an exasperated look, pointedly looking at her already showing belly, Anya looked down and a wave of remembrance crossed her face as Cordy gave into what she really wanted to say.

"Uhmm.." Cordy began, "She's already pregnant, you can't get much more pregnant than that!" Anya processed this and then pouted looking at Xander for comfort, causing everyone to laugh.

"No," Buffy replied, "I'm not anymore pregnant than I was earlier." She looked at Angel who squeezed her hand lovingly, "What we wanted to discuss was moving."

"Moving!" Dawn exclaimed her voice rising an octave higher than any human's should go, including the Key's, "I'm not moving. I still have to finish high school and slayer and Hellmouth!" Dawn had finally settled into her friends, she had memories since childhood, but she had only known them for a couple of years. She had found out who her real friends where shortly after her mom died and she didn't want to start fresh somewhere else, she had finally gotten comfortable around them.

"Not out of town." Angel replied and Dawn calmed down. "Just to a bigger place," Dawn nodded slowly if they weren't moving then she wasn't as concerned, "where there is enough space for everyone." The group looked around, wondering where there would be enough room for everyone. Angel paused for a moment, realizing that he hadn't given anyone the opportunity to back out and leave the Hellmouth, "That is if everyone is staying here on the Hellmouth. I am not going back to Los Angeles."

"We didn't really expect you to Angel-cakes." Lorne replied, "Besides this town could use a good demon karaoke bar." Everyone gave a shout of laughter at this announcement. The Sunnydale group flashing to Willy's bar, laughed even harder, wondering how Willy would hold up to the competition.

"And someone needs to guide the younger Summers slayer." Wesley said and Dawn looked at him in shock. She had assumed that Giles would be her watcher too, but it would make sense if she had her own watcher and Wesley had changed since he had last been in Sunnydale, for the better.

"And someone needs to make sure that you guys are getting enough of those vamps." Gunn put in and everyone smiled.

"And to make sure that you are filing correctly." Cordy said and Angel and his crew laughed at this, because they remembered how Cordy filed and where still trying to figure it out for the most part.

"And someone has to connect you to the PTB." Doyle replied and everyone gave a smile. No one would be out of a job and there would be plenty to go around.

"But this is mom's house." Dawn said quietly as the group talked animatedly about where they could go and who would be doing what, tears already forming in her eyes as Buffy rushed to hug her sister, even as tears filled her eyes.

"I know, but there are too many of us living here and we can't fit, especially with a baby coming." Buffy told Dawn, her voice husky with the emotions that were running through her body that were even more stronger, because of her pregnancy, "We can keep it, if you want and we can have sleepovers and the works later on." Dawn nodded, while Buffy brushed the tears from her eyes. They hugged for a long while, both of them trying not to burst into tears anymore than they already had, because their mother was gone.

Angel watched as his mate and his daughter hugged the conversation dying down as everyone witnessed the emotional scene before them. Angel wanted to drag them into another room where they wouldn't be scrutinized, but these were their friends, their family, so he settled for wrapping his arms around Dawn and Buffy. Willow was the first to join in, followed by Xander and then Tara. Everyone looked around the room trying to figure out who would be the next to go, when Cordy rushed forward, dragging Doyle with her. Giles was the next to join in, followed by Anya, leaving the AI team wondering what they should do. Buffy answered this for them by offering a hand out to them, and the team jumped on the chance, everyone rushed forward as one, joining in the group hug.

"I would never ask you to give up the house." Angel whispered to Dawn, "Maybe when you are older you could move back in." Dawn nodded in agreement, bumping into Buffy and Angel. Buffy moved back only to run into Willow and Tara. Everyone laughed as they realized that they wouldn't be able to move without running into someone. The group quickly dispersed leaving Angel with one arm wrapped around Dawn and the other arm wrapped around Buffy, the girl's hands clasped behind his back. Angel felt more content than he had in a while it was a good thing that his soul was bound to him.

"Although I don't think we should just leave Los Angeles, because Wolfram and Hart are located there." Doyle said when he realized that the touching moment was winding down. The group thought for a moment, trying to figure out what they could do, because they knew that LA would need to be protected also, but none of them wanted to leave. They all had their reasons to stay, but the most important one was that they had all become a family. A very large and dysfunctional family, but a family nonetheless and they wanted that family to thrive.

"Maybe I can help." A voice said from the doorway. Everyone responded differently to the voice, mostly everyone grabbed a weapon, but Buffy moved forward and wrapped the girl in a hug, while Angel moved forward to shake her hand. "I have found that fighting evil makes you hungry." A slight smile appeared on the face of the woman before them.

"Hello Faith." Buffy said warmly pulling back to look at the dark haired slayer, leaving a shocked group before her. "Aren't you dead?" Buffy mentioned, almost as an after thought.

"Aren't you?" Faith replied with a grin that for the first time, reached her eyes, Buffy smiled in return, raising an eyebrow as she waited for Faith's story. "The rumor of my death was highly over exaggerated. I was brought back on the table, they managed to stabilize me and with the help of my slayer healing here I am."

"Wait, why did they need to put you on the table in the first place?" Buffy asked and a dark, angry look flashed across Faith's face.

"The watcher's council decided they needed another active slayer." Faith replied hurt in her voice, "So they had someone or paid someone, to come into my cell and suffocate me in my sleep." She raised a hand when Buffy would have spoken, "The person was a demon, stronger than a human, so at least they learned." She joked and Buffy shot her a sour look that told Faith that Buffy did not appreciate Faith's humor.

"And how did you get out of jail?" Angel asked breaking the intense showdown between the slayers and Faith's grin grew causing Angel to groan. "You didn't break out did you?"

"Course not, A." Faith replied, the grin of hers still growing with each passing second, "It's like this, I was supposed to serve until I died." She replied and he nodded, he remembered the hearing. "Well I died, so I got a lawyer and he got me out of jail, because technically I served my time." Angel and Buffy laughed while the others looked on unsure of what was going on.

"Maybe she hit her head." Xander said to the Scooby and AI teams, sword held before him as everyone took in the sight of Angel and Buffy having a friendly conversation with Faith, "This is Faith, the rogue slayer. The one who poisoned Deadboy and tried to kill you? Stole your body? Ringing any bells?" Buffy laughed and Faith followed suite. What no one knew was that Buffy had been visiting Faith when she could and they two had been corresponding. They had worked through their differences and while they weren't sure they could work in the same town, they were sure that they could trust the other person to cover their backs. When Buffy had died and come back, she hadn't started writing to Faith again and wasn't even sure that Faith knew she had died and been brought back, until Faith joked about the death thing.

"It's okay." Buffy said, "I remember what she did." Faith looked down guiltily she had done a lot and had a lot to atone for and she didn't need someone constantly rubbing it in her face, "But we have already worked through this and we both forgave each other." Faith looked up and grinned at Buffy, it was obvious that the older slayer wasn't against Faith taking up Angel's work in LA. It was obvious that Buffy was on very friendly terms with the dark slayer and they had worked out their aggressions.

_Flashback_

_"Faith," the burly guard said, "you've got a visitor." Faith looked out the window and noticed it was high noon, what was Angel doing out there so late? Following the guard to the room, she looked around for Angel, but couldn't find the dark vampire._

_"Where is he?" Faith asked, wondering what type of joke was being played on her, Angel was the only one to visit her and probably would always be the only one._

_"I never said it was a __guy.__" The guard told her and Faith looked about ready to punch him._

_"I'm hurt." Buffy said, "You don't recognize me." Faith let out a startled gasp, whirling around to face her sister slayer. _

_"B." Faith squeaked out, dropping into the chair as dizziness swept over her._

_"Hello Faith." Buffy replied eyeing the older slayer. It had been one month since Faith had been in jail, a month of Hell for Buffy. Everything from highschool had come back to her and she had been plagued with thoughts of the other slayer._

_"What are you doing here?" Faith asked finally, wondering what Buffy wanted from her, probably to gloat. _

_"I have one question and then I'm gone." Buffy replied and Faith nodded, "Why?"_

_"Why?" Faith asked, "you had everything! The perfect boyfriend, friends, watcher, mother! You had everything."_

_"But you had the freedom of life, you could do anything." Buffy replied, the two of them sharing a look, before they burst out laughing. They realized that they had been jealous of what the other slayer had and not fully realizing what they had in front of them. They had talked for hours, until the guard forced Faith away. The first letter arrived a week later._

_End Flashback_

"And speaking of lawyers." Faith said, her hand going behind her, clasping onto another one and then pulling them into the room. "This is mine." She told the group as she pulled an attractive man into the room, he had dark brown hair and startling eyes. "Lindsey MacDonald."


End file.
